They are just following the trend. Spending cash in the EU is slowly becoming somewhere between strongly frowned upon and outright illegal. I cant see that changing ether within the Eurozone specifically as it becomes separate to the rest of the EU over the next couple of years. They need to try and make sure they are getting all they tax revenue they can and making cash unworkable forcing everyone onto a bank account and debit card then taxing transactions at source is the only realistic way.