The new euro banknotes are to be unveiled tomorrow; there are ten designs in the running
The President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, viewed the design proposals for the new banknotes, which are due to be unveiled at a press conference on Thursday 23 July 2026.
This is according to the ECB, which notes that the final list of proposals, which comes at the end of a process that began in 2021 and also involved European citizens, will be assessed by a panel of independent experts.
The themes chosen for future euro banknotes are European culture, which focuses on places of culture and shared heritage and illustrious European figures such as Maria Callas, Leonardo da Vinci and Miguel de Cervantes, and rivers and birds, which express the resilience and diversity of the natural world, alongside references to European institutions.
In July 2025, the ECB launched a competition open to European graphic designers to gather their visual proposals: the deadline for submitting entries, which will be assessed by a jury of experts, was the end of April 2026.
