Within a couple of weeks after the opening of the Digital euro initiative of the European Commission for public consultation, up to 11,000 institutions and individuals delivered their responses on the respective website. The response segment will remain open till 14th June.

Apart from the open-ended remarks segment of the website, a focused consultation questionnaire is there to gather data from the representatives of the industry, experts, as well as the authorities related to such factors of the approaching digital euro in terms of data protection, privacy, AML (Anti-Money Laundering), CFT (Combating Financing of Terrorism) rules, the effect on financial stability as well as the expectations and requirements of the consumers.

The respective consultation procedure occurs ahead of the digital euro’s legislative consideration, which is anticipated to be conducted in the coming year. As Patrick Hansen (a crypto proponent) stated, in the digital euro-related consultations round of the previous year, a large number of respondents supported the idea that payments are a private matter. Regardless of this, Paolo Gentiloni – the Commissioner for Economy at the European Commission mentioned – that they do not prefer a digital euro that is anonymous.

A review of the content in the public response segment disclosed the presence of particular disapproval for the project largely. For instance, an unknown remark in German states notes that there are in advance digital payment means present hence if the authorities are pursuing additional surveillance, shielding the bank runs, addiction as well as mankind’s ultimate enslavement even then they cannot stop money laundering as it is in advance present to a great extent in several tax havens like Dubai, Macau, Cayman Islands, and so on.

A majority of the remarks are in the German language describing concerns related to the strategy of the government to restrict the community to only one digital currency, and negative feelings about the digital euro program. Marcel Diepstra suggested in his comment that the EU needs to focus on the adequate regulation of crypto rather than opening another front for a CBDC. He added that more than 13 years have been passed since the advent of crypto technology and the community established considerable confidence in this space.

However, the remarks cannot be taken as the true representation of the EU community’s sentiments in terms of their volume and the fact that the majority of the comments are from anonymous respondents.