https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/stupidpol/comments/1t117yg/european_people_and_the_european_governments/

Not everyone is convinced. As the legislation advances, opposition from commercial banks has intensified.

At an industry event in Brussels in mid-April, French Banking Federation chairman Daniel Baal took direct aim at the project.

“The retail digital euro, as currently designed, disrupts this balance by turning central bank money into a direct competitor of commercial bank money,” he said.

Wero, the European payments platform backed by major banks, is also wary.

Its CEO, Martina Weimert, acknowledged a use case for offline payments but warned the legal tender status, which would oblige merchants to accept the digital euro just as they must accept cash, would create a “distortion of competition”.

The fate of the digital euro now rests largely with one person: Fernando Navarrete Rojas, a Spanish centre-right MEP from the European People’s Party (EPP) who is steering the file through the European Parliament, the only EU institution yet to move it forward.

His conduct in parliamentary negotiations, his public speeches and his appearances at industry events all suggest a preference for private-sector solutions over the digital euro.

Navarrete has an extensive background in the banking sector. He held several high-level positions at the Bank of Spain

He also led the economic and public policies at the Foundation for Social Analysis and Studies (FAES), a right-wing think tank

According to his public meeting records, he held more than a hundred meetings specifically on the digital euro since he took over the file in December 2024.

With EU governments strongly backing the project, the Parliament is where the battle will be won or lost.

At an industry event in mid-April organised by the French Banking Federation, Navarrete was candid about his scepticism, describing the digital euro as not an urgent priority.

He made it clear he favours the private sector, describing it as “much more efficient”.

According to several people familiar with the negotiations, the Spanish MEP used closed-door meetings to slow the process down, pushing his views into the text and campaigning hard for a key concession: limiting the digital euro to offline use only, on the grounds that an online version would compete directly with Wero, Visa, Mastercard and other private players.

Two people familiar with the negotiations described his conduct as unpredictable and determined to stall the legislation.

The offline-only position was ultimately dropped from the text, clearing a significant hurdle.

It does appear as if sanity will win this battle, but Visa and Mastercard scored a serious win navigating one of their own into a key position capable of stalling a european alternative for -this- long.

If not for president Trump pushing them to unperson those european prosecutors they might have been able to keep stalling.