Political Trilogues
The Digital Euro legislation has entered trilogue negotiations between the co-legislators (Commission, Council, Parliament). The first trilogue negotiation took place on 13 July under the Irish Presidency. The second was held on 10 September, and the co-legislators discussed the compensation model. The European Parliament (EP) suggested that the no worse off (NWO) model has a greater degree of granularity, it is economically viable and provides a stronger base. It also outlined that the NWO has a merchant level safeguard and that this additional layer arises from the diversity of cost structures across the market which are not uniform, and an average-based cap cannot fully reflect all the services. The Parliament also suggested that a simple weighted average is not granular enough and further suggested that fees are not required for offline at all, as it believes offline transactions bear minimal costs. On the other hand, the Council recognised that both institutions are working towards the same goal of ensuring a fair and sustainable compensation framework, both models use a euro area payment cap based around a weighted average, both agree that it is a temporary arrangement, with further alignment on a cost-based model post transition. The European Commission cautioned against adding an open-ended transitional model.
The next political trilogue will be taking place on 30 September and the political agreement is planned to be reached before the end of 2026 under the Irish Presidency.
Ecommerce Europe’s position
Based on these developments, Ecommerce Europe is engaging constructively with the co-legislators to ensure that the final text provides a simpler, more balanced and fairer digital euro fee model for merchants that avoids uncertainty. In addition, in coordination with the Merchant Payments Coalition we worked on a position addressing our concerns and recommendations on different issues in the digital euro legislation.
Our key recommendations are to:
- Reduce the risks of using ‘comparable digital means of payment;
- Simplify the fee calculation;
- Remove the ‘cost-plus’ phase entirely; and
- Enable business-to-business payments with the digital euro by making acceptance mandatory.
It is highlighted that if merchants are not genuinely better off, they will have little incentive to embrace the digital euro and promote it towards consumers. Only if the above principles are adopted, will the digital euro benefit the European economy, help merchants and consumers take advantage of this new form of payment and lead to more resilience and autonomy.
ECB’s call for expression of interest of merchants for the digital euro pilot
On 15 September, the ECB launched a call for expression of interest inviting e-commerce and mobile commerce merchants operating in the euro area to take part in a digital euro pilot, set to begin in the second half of 2027. The call follows the selection of payment service providers (PSPs) to participate in the pilot.
In more detail, the digital euro pilot will test the technical functionality, operational processes and overall user experience of the digital euro. Selected merchants will test acceptance of a beta version of the digital euro in a controlled environment, working with the ECB and participating euro area national central banks. This “beta digital euro” will be functionally and technically close to the digital euro as foreseen in the draft legislation but will not have legal tender status. By enabling payments in online and mobile checkout settings, participants will gain hands-on experience of how the digital euro could integrate into existing payment ecosystems.
The call is open to e-commerce and m-commerce merchants able to operate in at least two countries participating in the pilot. Participation is voluntary and unremunerated. The deadline for the application is on 27 October 2026 at 17:00 CET.
An online focus session on 6 October 2026 at 15:00 CET will help merchants prepare their applications and pose questions directly to the Eurosystem register here.