Considerations on COM(2023)368 - Provision of digital euro services by payment services providers incorporated in Member States whose currency is not the euro

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dossier COM(2023)368 - Provision of digital euro services by payment services providers incorporated in Member States whose currency is not the ...
document COM(2023)368
date June 28, 2023
 
a name="_Ref126239952">(1) The Commission emphasised in the Digital Finance and Retail Payment Strategies4 of September 2020 that a digital euro, as a retail central bank digital currency, would act as a catalyst for innovation in payments, finance and commerce in the context of ongoing efforts to reduce the fragmentation of the EU retail payments market.

(2) Regulation (EU) [please insert reference – proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on the establishment of the digital euro – COM(2023) 369 final] on the establishment of the digital euro establishes the digital euro and lays down rules concerning it, in particular as regards its legal tender status, distribution, use and essential features, with a view to adapting the euro to technological changes and to ensuring its use as a single currency.

(3) It is essential to ensure that all payment services providers, whether incorporated in Member States whose currency is the euro or in Member States whose currency is not the euro, may distribute the digital euro and therefore exercise their freedom to provide services in the Union. The provision of digital euro payment service by all payment services providers would contribute to a high level of innovation, facilitate payments and increase competition across the Union and is necessary to safeguard the integrity of the single market. All payment services providers incorporated in the Union should therefore be in a position to distribute digital euro payment services under the same conditions to natural or legal persons residing or established in the Member States whose currency is the euro, to natural or legal persons who opened a digital euro account at the time they resided or were established in the Member States whose currency is the euro, but no longer reside or are established in such Member States, and to visitors in the euro area. Payment services providers incorporated in Member States whose currency is not the euro should also be in a position to distribute the digital euro to any other natural or legal persons residing or established in Member States whose currency is not the euro and in other countries of the European Economic Area or any third countries subject to the conditions laid down in the Regulation (EU) [please insert reference – proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on the establishment of the digital euro – COM(2023) 369 final].

(4) Payment services providers incorporated in Member States whose currency is not the euro should apply the same rules as payment services providers incorporated in Member States whose currency is the euro for the purposes of distributing the digital euro. That is essential in order to ensure that the distribution of the digital euro by all payment services providers incorporated in the Union takes place in a uniform manner.

(5) The provision of digital euro payment services by payment services providers incorporated in Member States whose currency is not the euro, should be subject to the same supervisory standards than those applied to payment services providers incorporated in Member States whose currency is the euro. For that purpose, the relevant provisions of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and the Council5, as replaced by Directive (EU) [please insert reference – proposal for a Directive on payment services and electronic money services in the internal market – COM/2023/366 final], Directive (EU) 2015/8436 as replaced by Directive (EU) [please insert reference – proposal for Anti-Money Laundering Directive - COM/2021/423 final] should apply to the supervision by competent authorities and the sanctions regime and supervisory arrangements between the competent authorities of the home Member States and of the host Member States, concerning provision of digital euro payment service by payment services providers established in Member States whose currency is not the euro.

(6) Similarly, as in case of competent authorities of Member States whose currency is the euro under Regulation (EU) [please insert reference – proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on the establishment of the digital euro – COM(2023) 369 final], the competent authorities responsible under Directive (EU) 2015/2366 for supervising the provision of payment services should also cooperate with the European Central Bank for the purposes of supervising the application of payment-related obligations laid down in Regulation (EU) [please insert reference – proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on the establishment of the digital euro – COM(2023) 369 final].

(7) In accordance with Article (4), point (25), of Directive 2015/2366, funds mean banknotes and coins, scriptural money or electronic money. As a new form of central bank money with legal tender, the digital euro should be considered as funds under Directive 2015/2366 as replaced by Directive (EU) [please insert reference – proposal for a Directive on payment services and electronic money services in the internal market - COM/2023/366 final] which extends the definition of funds to all forms of central bank money issued for retail use. The same definition of funds should be included in Regulation (EU) 2021/1230 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 July 2021 on cross-border payments in the Union.

(8) Since the objectives of this Regulation cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States as rules applicable to payment services providers should be the same regardless of whether they are incorporated in a Member State whose currency is the euro or not, but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the action to ensure the integrity of the single market, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.

(9) The European Data Protection Supervisor and the European Data Protection Board were consulted in accordance with Article 42 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 and delivered a joint opinion on [XX XX 2023].