· Due to its unique crisis-resilience and crisis-prevention attributes, euro cash infrastructure needs to be legally secured and uniformly supported, guaranteeing easy-and-convenient access and widely applied mandatory acceptance.
· Private electronic and digital payment methods and the potential digital euro alone are not sufficient in the digital age to support the crisis-resilience of the European economy and its citizens.
Crisis-resilient payments systems depend on the diversity of payment methods. It is therefore essential that cash legislation is in place that supports the formation of a cash payment habit in ‘good times’ to enable cash as an effective means of payment in crisis times and electronic payments outages. The current fragmentation in the EU cash policies and conditions effectively weakens the cyber and financial crisis preparedness of the community and its citizens.
The cash payment habit cannot be quickly restored when it has been lost. Governments must act now to protect it – and harmonise efforts across the EU.
