The European Central Bank moved the digital euro project into a more operational phase on 15 September 2026 by opening a call for euro-area e-commerce and mobile-commerce merchants to join a pilot, then listing a merchant participation agreement dated 7 October 2026 on its technical documents page. That matters because the project is no longer only about legislative positioning or internal design: the ECB is now asking real merchants to prepare for testing. But the same source record shows this is still recruitment for a beta exercise, not a decision to issue a digital euro or make it legal tender (merchant call, technical documents and research).
The call set a concrete deadline. According to the ECB, expressions of interest had to be submitted by email by 17:00 CET on 27 October 2026; participation would be voluntary and unpaid; and the pilot was expected to run for 12 months starting in the second half of 2027. The ECB also said the test would use a beta digital euro without legal tender status (merchant call). A separate ECB roundup of Governing Council decisions and related actions repeated that the merchant call was issued on 15 September 2026 and that the deadline was 27 October 2026, which helps confirm the timing but not any later outcome (Governing Council decisions roundup).
The practical change for businesses is not just the invitation to apply. The ECB said selected merchants would be invited to sign a merchant participation agreement with the ECB and would also need to establish or adapt a contractual relationship with an acquiring pilot payment service provider. On the document index, the ECB listed both a “Pilot merchant participation agreement” and a version “with draft revision marks,” each dated 7 October 2026, alongside merchant annexes dated 15 September 2026 for a pilot timeline, feedback framework and communication guidelines (merchant call, technical documents and research). The analytical significance is that the ECB is testing a chain of relationships: merchant, acquirer and central-bank-run pilot framework.
That still does not establish rollout. In a 6 October 2026 speech, ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said the Council of the European Union had agreed its position on digital euro legislation in December 2025, the European Parliament had adopted its position in July 2026, and trilogue negotiations were under way. He also said the Governing Council would decide on issuance only after the legislation is adopted, and that, if the legislative process were concluded by the end of 2026, the ECB aimed to be ready for a possible first issuance in 2029 (Cipollone speech). That makes the merchant pilot an implementation rehearsal under legislative uncertainty, not evidence that issuance is settled.
For readers across the euro area, the cross-border implication is narrower than a launch but broader than a consultation. The ECB says merchants operating in the euro area can apply, and Cipollone said 36 payment service providers from across the euro area had already been selected after more than 50 applications (merchant call, Cipollone speech). So the next practical question is whether merchants can fit pilot acceptance into existing acquiring arrangements. What the retrieved record does not establish is equally important: it does not name selected merchants, identify any local calls by national central banks, describe supervisory handling in each member state, or prove that the second-half-2027 start will happen. Those remain open points, and the forward-looking timetable should be read as an ECB plan as of September and October 2026, not as a completed milestone.
