Payments were long seen as a technical and admin matter, but they are now a strategic issue for the European Union, said Astrid Cousin, director for horizontal policies at the European Commission's directorate-general for financial stability, financial services and the capital markets union. She spoke by video link to the DiGi Pay 2026 conference, a full-day event at the Inter Expo Center in Sofia.

In the morning, Cousin set out the steps the Commission is taking against the split of the EU payments market. The goal is a European payment system that is linked up and competitive. It rests on the 2020 Retail Payments Strategy, which backs innovation, links between systems, competition and EU-wide digital payment solutions.

The Commission sees payments as critical infrastructure, Cousin explained, because there can be no single European capital market without payments that are linked and work. The EU still relies on outside providers, especially for card payments. She said sovereignty does not mean cutting itself off. It means Europe can build and run its own competitive and new solutions, under its own rules and in line with its economic interests.

Instant transfers could become the new norm in the EU, Cousin said. To get there, she said, they must be built on an efficient payment settlement system, common standards and links between systems, and they must be able to grow across the whole European market. People and firms now have more ways to pay than ever, including stablecoins, which are digital assets tied to one or a basket of world currencies.

In the medium term, the digital euro will join them. The European Central Bank will issue it. It will sit alongside cash and exist next to private payment solutions. Cousin named privacy, ease of use and financial inclusion as the European values the digital euro must reflect. "The digital euro aims to keep freedom of choice," she said. Regulators must keep updating the rules.

The planned package of laws includes the third Payment Services Directive (PSD3) and the Payment Services Regulation. They update the rules and open the EU payments market further. Both are expected to be adopted by the end of 2026 and take effect in the first half of 2027.

As well as payment service providers, the duties will cover interpersonal communication services, hosting services and large online platforms. The regulation provides for an anti-fraud platform under the Commission's wing, with national supervisors and private firms taking part. Cousin called action against fraud a top priority. She said the rules must strike a balance: back innovation without harming security, and cut fraud without stifling competition.

Payments made by AI agents are a separate issue. The benefits of automation are clear, but it is not settled how the rules apply, under what conditions an agent can order a transfer, and who is liable. Cousin said the Commission is following these questions "very closely".