'There are already digital means of payment:' EU Commission gets 11,000 public comments on CBDC project

cointelegraph.com:

In less than two weeks that passed since the European Commission opened its "Digital euro for the EU" initiative up to public consultation, more than 11,000 individuals and organizations left their feedback on the website. The feedback section will be open until June 14.

Besides the open-ended comments section on the website, there is a targeted consultation questionnaire that aims to collect information from the industry representatives, authorities and experts regarding such aspects of the prospective digital euro as privacy and data protection, AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering/Combatting the Financing of Terrorism) rules, the impact on financial stability and users’ needs and expectations.

The consultation process predates legislative consideration of the digital euro, which is expected to be scheduled in 2023.

As crypto advocate Patrick Hansen noted, in the last year’s round of consultations on the digital euro, the majority of respondents spoke out in favor of payments being a private matter. Despite that, the European Commission's Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni stated that “a completely anonymous digital euro is not desirable.”

Related: Central Banks of France and Switzerland announce successful trial of digital Euro, Swiss Franc

A review of a sample of the public feedback section's content revealed the existence of a certain discontent with the project in general. For example, as an anonymous comment in German goes:

Another German-language commentator, Michael Hagmüller, also emphasizes the fear of governmental overreach that could be made possible by the adoption of a single digital currency:

Notably, it is the German language that dominates the public comments section, and the negative sentiment towards the