From a Defensive to an Offensive Digital Euro: Legal-Institutional Design Choices for Restructuring Europe's Monetary Architecture

The digital euro is developing from concept to reality. This article explains why the European Union should treat the digital euro not as a marginal addition to the existing bank-based architecture but as the entry point to a structural restructuring of the monetary and financial architecture. Drawing on the offensive monetary strategies of the United States and China and vulnerabilities of the current architecture, it reframes the design choices currently before the European legislator — holding limits, access for non-residents, ledger architecture, privacy by design, and the recalibration of bank protections — as geopolitical rather than technical choices, and sketches a phased restructuring path. The digital euro can anchor a transition towards a public monetary core combined with competitive, market-based payments and financial intermediation.