The finance ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain called on the European Commission to include “strong rules” in its upcoming cryptocurrency proposal, in particular for global digital tokens like Facebook’s Libra.
Ministers Olaf Scholz (Germany), Bruno Le Maire (France), Roberto Gualtieri (Italy), Nadia Calviño (Spain) and Wopke Hoekstra (the Netherlands) issued a joint statement on the margins of the ongoing informal meeting of EU finance ministers in Berlin.
It is the first physical meeting of the Eurogroup and the Ecofin
since the coronavirus crisis started, which led to seven months of
videoconferences.
“We are concerned about cryptocurrencies,” said Le Maire, who added
that the largest eurozone economies expected the Commission to issue
“very strong and very clear rules”.
The draft cryptocurrency proposal, published by EURACTIV on Thursday,
includes stricter requirements for more risky digital tokens,
especially for asset-backed cryptocurrencies – known as “stablecoins” –
such as Libra, tied to sovereign currencies.
The long-awaited proposal, prepared over the past two years and
expected for the coming weeks, will turn the EU into the first big
jurisdiction to have cryptocurrency rules.
Diplomatic sources told EURACTIV that the statement was hastily
negotiated on Thursday night, pushed by Germany among like-minded
partners on this issue.
Another official added that the goal is to show that the ministers
are united in seeking “a clear supervisor and regulatory framework”.
Calviño said that the new European framework should ensure “monetary sovereignty, financial stability and consumer protection”.
Crypto assets represent a juicy market of €350 billion. The digital
tokens have transformed the global payment systems, by catalysing lower
fees and instant services. But some of them are also highly volatile and
used by money launderers and terrorists.
Ministers are in particular concerned about the risks posed by Libra, which was developed by Facebook and other companies.
Given that it will be
backed by a national currency, member states are wary of the
implications for their monetary sovereignty and the financial stability.
“We want the ECB to be the only one to issue currency, that’s the sense of the joint statement,” stressed Le Maire.
Italy’s Roberto Gualtieri said that their joint statement is a
“very strong signal that we are united and engaged in ensuring, on one
hand, that we support and promote financial innovation and technology
development; but it has to go hand in hand with financial stability,
consumer protection and the protection of our shared sovereignty.”
Hoekstra insisted on the need for “a very clear commitment with common guidelines”.
As member states already warned in December 2019, the joint statement
eyed Libra to insist that “no global asset-backed crypto-asset
arrangement should begin operation in the EU until the legal, regulatory
and oversight challenges and risks have been adequately identified and
addressed.”
The text also included five principles that the Commission proposal
should pursue. For example, that, in the case of cryptocurrency backed
by a sovereign currency, and intended to be used widely for payments,
users must be able to redeem at any moment, and at par value, the
asset-backed digital token in euros or any other EU currency.
EURACTIV
© EURACTIV
Key
Hover over the blue highlighted
text to view the acronym meaning
Hover
over these icons for more information
Comments:
No Comments for this Article