Honourable Member of the European Parliament, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to be here today and an honour to introduce our esteemed guest Mr. Piero Cipollone, with whom I have the privilege of working with at the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. I would also like to thank Mr Hadjipantela for organising this event and the Association of Cyprus Banks for their support.
Piero, allow me to start by recognising your key role in advancing the digital euro initiative, a significant and strategic milestone in the ongoing evolution of the euro area’s monetary system.
Mr. Cipollone currently serves as a Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, a position he assumed on the 1st of November 2023, a date that coincides with the launch of the digital euro preparation phase. [He hit the ground running, having received the baton from Fabio Panetta, and has since covered more miles that a marathon runner, in promoting the case for a digital euro].
Before turning to his current role, I would like to briefly recall some highlights of Mr Cipollone’s accomplished professional trajectory. Over the course of more than three decades, Mr. Cipollone has held several senior positions of national and international significance. He served as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy, and earlier as Executive Director at the World Bank.
At the European Central Bank, his portfolio is at the heart of Europe’s evolving financial system. He is responsible for International and European Relations, Market Infrastructure and Payments, and Banknotes, and he chairs several high-level strategic bodies, most notably:
In these roles, Mr. Cipollone’s expertise and vision have been instrumental in shaping the future of Europe’s financial market architecture. At the core of this vision lies a fundamental central banking objective: serving the public good by providing Europeans with a sovereign, resilient, and universally accepted digital means of payment. This line of argument is one that Piero has consistently and clearly articulated through his repeated participation in hearings of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), where he has emphasised how Europe’s heavy dependence on non‑European payment providers poses risks to our resilience, competition, autonomy, and the continent’s ability to act independently in an increasingly digital global economy. [I am sure Mr Hadjipantela would also agree with me on the value of Piero’s substantive contributions to the ongoing institutional dialogue between the ECB and the European Parliament]. In our capacity as Presidency of the Council of the E.U, we have expressed our commitment in the pursuit of finalising the Single Currency package as soon as possible. As the Council has reached General Approach, we stand ready to engage with the European Parliament in the trilogues, as we enter that last mile to establish legal certainty for the digital euro project.
I would not wish to pre-empt the messages that Mr Cipollone will convey to you today, particularly as he has travelled all the way from Frankfurt to Nicosia to present them in person. Only one key message from me. The digital euro is about ensuring a secure, sovereign European payment option in an increasingly digital economy; in a world that demands certainty amid heightened uncertainty.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Please join me in warmly welcoming Mr. Piero Cipollone.
Piero, the floor is yours.