EPI CEO Martina Weimert warned in a May 2026 Euronews interview that granting legal tender status to the digital euro would create a "distortion of competition." Legal tender status would require merchants to accept the digital euro alongside private payment solutions including Wero. EU leaders used their mid-March European Council meeting to set a deadline for passing the digital euro regulation before the end of 2026.
At least one MEP argued for limiting the digital euro to offline functionality, contending that an online version would compete directly with Wero, Visa, and Mastercard. Wero currently operates across five markets with 53 million registered users, processing payments over the ECB's TIPS infrastructure. The ECB has designated the same TIPS platform as the settlement layer for the digital euro, meaning both systems would share identical rails if the regulation passes.
If the regulation is adopted by year-end 2026, the ECB's timeline targets PSP pilot invitations in the second half of this year and potential first issuance by 2029. Weimert has acknowledged a use case for the digital euro in offline payments. She maintains that mandatory online acceptance would undermine private European payment solutions.