“Confidentiality and the digital euro : a key condition for success”

  • Panel
  • Maritime
  • Friday 22.05 — 11:50 - 13:05

Organising Institution

CNIL

France

French data protection authority
  • Academic 1
  • Business 2
  • Policy 3
The discussions between EU institutions for the adoption of a legal framework and technical infrastructure for a retail digital euro are progressing, with a Council position defined in Dec 2025 and a vote within the European Parliament in May, whereas the ECB has announced the launching of a pilot phase for 2027. The digital euro, with both an online and an offline modality, is announced to be a digital equivalent of cash and to secure a high level of confidentiality. As a strong request from citizens, given the risks of tracing and reuse of transaction data the project entails, confidentiality is indeed a key feature of the digital euro design. But the devil is in the details : what is meant by confidentiality exactly, for which actors and with the help of what techniques, can this political promise be upheld?

Questions to be answered

  1. What are the key conditions of success for a retail digital euro ? what role does confidentiality play in that regard ?
  2. How should a digital euro be designed, from a technological point of view, to reach a high level of privacy and data protection?
  3. Will the digital euro really be an equivalent of cash, with the same properties of confidentiality ?
  4. What are the merits of an offline modality of the digital euro, a priority of the project ?

Moderator

Aymeric PONTVIANNE

CNIL - France

Aymeric Pontvianne is Chief economist at CNIL, the French data protection authority, a department he created three years ago, and co-coordinator of the EDPB subgroup on cross-regulatory interplay and cooperation. Graduate of the Ecole nationale d’administration, he holds a Master 2 degree in Economics and occupied various positions within the French Treasury. His responsibilities include economic impact assessments and studies, market intelligence, analysis of business models, and ex-post evaluation of policy tools. Main author of the CNIL White Paper on means of payment and payment data (2021), he is lead rapporteur on the digital euro file within the EDPB.

Speaker

Leon Schumacher

DigitalEkho - Luxembourg

Leon V. Schumacher is a seasoned technology leader, entrepreneur and senior advisor to companies, banks and start-ups. He holds a master’s in electrical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), a master’s in management from HEC Paris, and a post-MBA from the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University. Schumacher is a veteran in the global corporate sector, having served as Group Chief Information Officer for Novartis and ArcelorMittal and founded multiple tech start-ups related to cybersecurity, privacy, and digital assets. He has also been instrumental in the creation of two CBDC solutions.

Speaker

Rita Camporeale

ABI - Italy

After a central banking experience at Banca d’Italia and the ECB), Rita joined the Italian Banking Association (ABI) as Head of Payments. She is co-coordinator of ABI work on the digital euro dossier. She is Vice-Chair of the EPC, the Payment Expert Group of the EBF, and represents EBF also in the Digital euro scheme Rulebook Development Group of the ECB.

Speaker

Philipp Täufer

Deutsche Bundesbank - Germany

Philipp Täufer has been working at the Deutsche Bundesbank since 2020. Until 2024, he was responsible for Executive Board public relations in the Central Office for Economic Education. From 2024, he held the same role at the Centre for International Central Bank Dialogue (CiC), where he worked with central banks worldwide. Since 2026, he has been part of the Digital Euro Ecosystem team.

Speaker

Dr. Andrés CHOMCZYK PENEDO

School of Law (ICADE) - Universidad Pontificia Comillas - International

Andrés Chomczyk Penedo is a postdoctoral research fellow at the School of Law (ICADE) of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas. He remains as an affiliated researcher at the Law, Science, Technology and Society large research group, where he obtained his PhD in Law, and as a senior fellow in digital finance at the Brussels Privacy Hub of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. During his PhD studies, he was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions doctoral fellow and worked in several EU-funded projects.