EU Parliament backs digital euro, aligns with Council on online- and offline-ready currency

MILAN, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The European Parliament gave its first major backing to the digital euro on Tuesday, endorsing the European Council's negotiating stance for a central bank digital currency with both online and offline functionality.

The endorsement matters because the European Central Bank needs Parliament's legislative approval ?before it can issue a digital euro, meaning its goal of a 2029 launch depends on lawmakers signing ?off.

The assembly's position marks a shift from earlier parliamentary proposals focused solely on ?offline payments and signals closer alignment with the ECB on ?safeguarding the bloc's monetary ?sovereignty.

The ECB has been developing a digital euro to preserve the role of central bank money in ?an increasingly digital economy and to reduce ?reliance on non-European payment providers.

Fraying transatlantic relations and growing geopolitical risks have stoked concerns about the fragmentation of EU payments services and ?the bloc's dependence on U.S. providers such ?as Visa ?or Mastercard (MA) - with some countries lacking altogether a domestic payment network.

The project, however, met resistance from bank lobbies in countries such as Germany and ?progress in parliament stalled, with the draft stuck for more than two years - far longer than the ECB expected.

MEPs on Tuesday approved two amendments to parliament's resolution on the ECB's 2025 annual report, calling for a digital euro that ensures equal access to payment services and provides a new form of public money ?usable ?both online and offline.

Lawmakers also underlined that a digital euro is essential to bolstering EU monetary sovereignty and deepening the single market while reducing fragmentation ?in retail payments.

"These votes are a big win for the progress of the digital euro," said Laura Casonato, head of policy at Positive Money Europe, a not-for-profit organisation advocating a digital version of cash.

"There is now a clear parliamentary majority in favour of an inclusive future form of cash - money in digital form backed by the central bank, making ?it safe," she said.

The parliament also urged the ECB to step up monitoring of crypto-assets, warning that the shift to digital payments, if left to private and non-EU providers, risks creating new ?forms of exclusion for users and merchants. (Reporting by Valentina Za, Editing by William Maclean)