The Digital Euro Vote Just Happened — Here's Why EU Payments Law Can't Wait
In June 2026, the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee adopted its formal position on the digital euro regulation by a 43-14-1 vote, sending the file to plenary and opening the door to trilogue negotiations with the Council. If lawmakers finalise the regulation this year, the ECB has said pilots could begin as early as 2027, with a possible first issuance in 2029. For anyone advising on EU payments law, the legal architecture around a central bank digital currency is no longer a hypothetical — it is a live legislative file moving through Brussels in real time.
The EU Law of Payments, by Dr. Phoebus L. Athanassiou (Senior Lead Legal Counsel, European Central Bank), is built for exactly this moment. It is the rare title that connects the settled law — payment systems oversight, payment services regulation, instant payments — with the frameworks still being negotiated: a retail and wholesale digital euro, stablecoins, and tokenised deposits. Written by someone who has worked directly on ECB payments and securities settlement policy, it reads less like a survey and more like a briefing from inside the process.
A few ways this shows up in practice: a financial regulation lawyer preparing client guidance on digital euro readiness can use the book's chapter on CBDC legal parameters as a starting reference point before the final text lands. A compliance team assessing a stablecoin or tokenised deposit product can draw on its analysis of how these instruments sit — or don't yet sit — within existing EU payment categories. And anyone advising on cross-border payment flows gets a structured account of where the current friction points are and how EU regulation is trying to close them.
For law libraries and institutional collections, this is a title worth having on the shelf before the digital euro regulation is finalised, not after — when demand for exactly this kind of grounded, practitioner-written analysis tends to spike.
CLNZ Books ships worldwide, with invoicing available for institutional and library orders, and support for both card and PayPal payment.
Q&A
Q: Is the digital euro regulation actually going to pass, or is this still theoretical?
A: It's an active legislative file. The European Parliament's ECON Committee adopted its position in June 2026 and it's now moving to plenary and Council negotiations, with the ECB targeting 2027 pilots if the regulation is adopted this year.
Q: Does this book cover stablecoins and tokenised deposits, or just traditional payment systems?
A: Both. It covers the established EU framework for payment systems and services alongside newer instruments — stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and virtual currencies — and how they interact with EU payments law.
Q: Who is this book actually useful for?
A: Financial legal practitioners advising on EU payments regulation, central bank and regulatory staff, policymakers, and academics and students working in finance and banking law.
Q: How current is the analysis given how fast this area is moving?
A: The author is ECB legal counsel working directly on payments and securities settlement policy, so the analysis reflects the live state of the legislative and regulatory process rather than a fixed historical snapshot.
Q: Where can I buy The EU Law of Payments?
A: Directly from CLNZ Books, with worldwide shipping and institutional invoicing available.