The EU Council on Friday backed a negotiating position for a digital euro that includes both online and offline functionality, diverging from earlier European Parliament ​proposals that focused solely on offline usage. Under the Council's new position, the digital euro would be publicly issued by the European Central Bank and usable anytime, anywhere, whether users are connected to the internet or offline. Fernando Navarrete, the European Parliament rapporteur for the digital euro, had advocated for an offline-only model to preserve users' privacy and the resilience of the unit itself, with the central bank to ... (full story)