Scheme rulebook

The scheme rulebook is the document that turns "the digital euro" from a policy idea into something a PSP can actually implement.

What it is for#

The rulebook establishes a single set of rules, standards and procedures for digital euro payments and related activities. Its purpose is harmonisation: ensuring that PSPs participating in the scheme offer consistent and standardised basic digital euro services, so a user gets the same private, secure experience across the euro area regardless of which country they are in or which PSP they use.

That is the same job SEPA did for credit transfers and direct debits. A scheme is only a scheme if everyone implements it the same way.

Its current status: draft#

This is the part that matters most for planning, so it deserves emphasis rather than a footnote.

Version 0.91 was published on 2 July 2026, and it is explicitly a draft. It is not a stable specification you can build against with confidence that nothing will move. It incorporates feedback from a large-scale market consultation carried out between June and October 2025.

Underneath it, the regulation is still in the EU legislative process. The decision on whether to issue the digital euro will only be considered once that process is complete.

Who writes it#

The Eurosystem develops the rulebook in close collaboration with the Rulebook Development Group (RDG), which brings together senior representatives from associations covering both the supply and demand sides of the European retail payments market, along with the ECB, euro area national central banks, and observers from EU institutions.

What is in it#

Beyond the rules themselves, the rulebook carries the material a PSP needs to build: functional requirements, technical implementation requirements split by distributing PSP and acquiring PSP, risk and dispute management requirements, and annexes covering certification and testing, user journeys, end-to-end process flows and reporting.