CBFL Seminar Series: The Monetary Law of CBDCs in Germany and the Euro Area by Dr Aurelia Philine Birne, University of Marburg

On 2 September 2025, the Centre for Banking & Finance Law invited Dr Aurelia Philine Birne, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for the Law and Regulation of Digitalization at the University of Marbug, to give a seminar on the Monetary Law of CBDCs in Germany and the Euro Area.

Dr Birne began by briefly outlining the development of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) worldwide, and then introduced the status quo of the Digital Euro Project and related design considerations. The European Commission issued a Proposal for a Regulation on the establishment of the digital euro offered as a public digital means of payment with the status of legal tender. She pointed out that the primary question raised by this regulatory proposal is about competenc of the European Central Bank (ECB) to issue the digital euro. Based on an analysis of relevant legal provisions, she believes that the ECB is granted the power to determine the format of euro banknotes, including a digital form.

By critically examining the legal nature of money, Dr Birne made the point that the digital euro should not be considered cash or deposit money, but rather a new form of money in legal sense. She further elaborated on the private-law relationships between users and digital currency units and the role of payment service providers as intermediaries. On a final note, Dr Birne concluded that a use’s entitlement to a digital euro unit should be unconditional, encompassing rights of use and sole control over that unit under Property Law, and payment service providers are only responsible for executing the transactions by means of a change in allocation in the respective payment system.

The seminar ended with a brief Q&A session which shed light on the use of wholesale CBCD in interbank transactions, the extension of the European monetary constitution to a digital euro, and the ownership rights to digital currency units.