The central bank has shortlisted ten designs for future banknotes, opening a public survey on culture, nature, access and trust in cash The European Centra…
The central bank has shortlisted ten designs for future banknotes, opening a public survey on culture, nature, access and trust in cash
The European Central Bank has opened a public vote on the future appearance of euro banknotes, inviting people across Europe to respond to ten shortlisted design proposals before a final decision expected around the end of 2026. The redesign, the first complete refresh since euro cash entered circulation in 2002, is being framed not only as a security update but as a question of identity, inclusion and the public role of money.
The ECB unveiled the shortlisted proposals on 23 July, saying Europeans can take part in an online survey until 21 September 2026. The options are built around two themes: “European culture” and “Rivers and birds”, both intended to move the notes beyond the deliberately anonymous architectural imagery of the current series.
For a currency used daily by hundreds of millions of people, the choice carries more than aesthetic weight. Banknotes are among the few EU symbols handled across class, age and geography. They pass through market stalls, care homes, train stations, small businesses and family budgets. Their design is therefore a quiet form of public language, shaping what Europe chooses to show about itself.
A redesign with civic meaning
The ECB says the new series should make euro banknotes more secure, sustainable, accessible, inclusive and relatable. Those words place the redesign in a wider debate about public trust. In recent years, European institutions have had to defend both the practical importance of cash and the legitimacy of common symbols at a time of political fragmentation, cost-of-living pressure and digital change.
The euro’s existing notes, first issued in 2002, avoid depicting real monuments or named figures. Their bridges, windows and gateways were designed to signal openness and connection without privileging one national history over another. The new shortlist suggests a more direct visual vocabulary, with culture, rivers, birds and shared landscapes offering ways to express unity without erasing difference.
The process also lands during a difficult economic moment. As Europe’s inflation debate has shown, money is never only technical. It is bound up with household security, public confidence and the question of whether institutions can explain their choices in ways people recognise.
How the shortlist was chosen
The ECB says more than 1,200 applications were submitted by graphic designers from across the European Union. Twenty-five designers were invited to develop proposals, and an independent 21-member jury, with experts nominated by euro area national central banks, selected ten shortlisted designs.
According to the ECB’s future banknotes process, the Governing Council will consider public responses, a representative survey of euro area citizens, technical assessment and the jury’s conclusions before selecting the final design concept. The chosen design will then need further development and production work, meaning the notes will not enter circulation immediately.
The central bank has also stressed continuity. Existing euro banknotes will retain their value and continue to circulate alongside the future series. That reassurance matters for older people, low-income households, migrants, small traders and others who may depend more heavily on cash or feel excluded by rapid digital payment shifts.
Cash, access and the right to choose
The redesign arrives as Europe debates the future of public money in a more digital economy. Card payments, mobile wallets and instant transfers are increasingly ordinary, yet cash remains a safeguard for privacy, resilience and inclusion. For people without stable access to banking, for those escaping coercive control, and for communities vulnerable to power or network failures, physical money still has a protective function.
That is why the visual redesign should not be treated as a decorative exercise alone. Accessibility features, durability, recognisability and the emotional legibility of the notes all affect whether citizens experience the euro as something public and usable, rather than distant and administrative.
The final choice will inevitably disappoint some tastes. No single image can carry Europe’s languages, histories, landscapes and political contradictions. But the survey gives citizens a modest opening into a decision usually associated with central bankers, printers and security specialists. In that sense, the banknotes are being asked to do what public symbols always do: make a shared space visible without pretending it is simple.
For the ECB, the challenge is to produce notes that are harder to counterfeit and easier to trust. For Europe, the larger question is what kind of common story can still fit in a wallet.
