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<\/a><\/p>\nLONDON (Reuters) – A digital euro will offer choice in making payments and is not a “Big Brother” project that seeks to control people, the European Union’s financial services commissioner Mairead McGuinness said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The European Central Bank has yet to decide if it will go ahead with introducing a digital euro, but McGuinness is due soon to publish a draft EU law which would give it a legal underpinning, if a decision to move ahead is taken.<\/p>\n
The ECB has said it does not want to keep any personal data on its users, officials at the central bank have said.<\/p>\n
But critics say a digital version of the euro could be used to pry on people’s activities, and make it harder to use cash for making payments and purchases.<\/p>\n
“This is not a Big Brother project,” McGuinness told the European Parliament.<\/p>\n
“I respect those that have that view, but frankly I would ask them to calm it down a little. We should not address this issue to citizens in this chamber as any sense of a project of control. It’s a project of choice,” McGuinness said.<\/p>\n
If the EU decides to grant formal ‘legal tender’ status to a digital euro, the bloc would need to do likewise for the cash version of the single currency, McGuinness said.<\/p>\n
The European Commission will therefore propose during the current quarter a draft law to ensure that the cash form of the euro is legal tender, in line with a ruling from the European Court of Justice in 2021, McGuinness said.<\/p>\n
The court said legal tender means mandatory acceptance of the euro at full face value, along with power to discharge from payment obligations or release from debt.<\/p>\n
The Bank of England and Britain’s finance ministry are studying a digital version of the pound, and the BoE has said it would have the same legal status as cash.<\/p>\n
\n(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)<\/p>\n
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