Pierrakakis: Digital Euro Will Be Reality by 2029

Κyriakos Pierrakakis, Greece’s minister of national economy and finance and the current president of the Eurogroup, the body that brings together finance ministers of the countries using the euro, urged the European Union to move faster and think more boldly on technology, energy and finance, arguing that the bloc has broadly agreed on what it needs to do but keeps stumbling on how quickly to do it.

Speaking at the Economist’s 30th annual Government Roundtable in Athens, held under the banner “Progress in an Age of Upheaval,” Pierrakakis laid out a set of connected priorities: a common European strategy, more ambitious goals, a clear technology doctrine, the digital euro, a savings union and an energy union.

He framed the moment as one of broad consensus but slow execution. The landmark reports drawn up by Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi, two influential reviews of the single market and European competitiveness, had, he said, produced a shared sense of direction. What remained unsettled was pace. “We all agreed on the deliverables,” he said. “The question is until when, how