“That was what we asked one year ago,” said one of the diplomats. “That proves that even the legal services are political.”
The central bank made a first big concession toward governments in July. Just a few days before a gathering of finance ministers, it presented a proposal in a high-level official meeting to give them the last word on the matter. But finance ministers didn’t back the pitch.
Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe said at the time “the very fact that our colleagues in the Commission and the ECB and my own team were able to come forward with a proposal represented great progress.”
Other officials reported a huge rift.
The earlier proposal, seen by POLITICO, gave governments three months, potentially extended to six, to decide on the limit and the chance for a qualified majority to veto it. In case of no decision, the ECB could go ahead and set the limit and issue the digital euro.
The last pitch, again presented just one week before a ministers’ meeting, doesn’t change the silence-approval mechanism in case of no decision by governments, but in exchange sets a clearer and longer timeline, requires more countries to agree on the limit, and also addresses doubts raised by countries such as Germany and Austria on what will happen after the launch.
