From an overall perspective, I clearly welcome the European Union's plans for enlargement, as enlargement will help extend the zone of stability in Europe, strengthen Europe's international competitive position and will thus contribute substantially to prosperity, security and peace in the long term.
Last year, we launched the digital euro project.5 We will investigate how a digital euro could offer a convenient, cost-free means of payment, allowing people to pay anywhere in the euro area with risk-free digital money – for example, when making payments online, which preclude the use of cash. In any event, a digital euro would complement cash, not replace it.