In a joint statement sent to the European Commission on Friday 11 September, the Finance Ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, meeting in Berlin for the informal ECOFIN Council meeting, called for strict regulation of asset-backed crypto-assets, such as “stablecoins”, in order to safeguard the monetary sovereignty of the EU.
The five countries thus support the European Commission’s intention to present a legislative proposal in the third quarter of 2020 setting out a European framework in this area and ask it to ban crypto-assets that do not meet the conditions set.
“This is a very important statement because it is a reminder that Member States are committed to monetary sovereignty”, said French Minister Bruno Le Maire. “The ECB is the only one authorised to issue currency, at this stage, it is something that cannot be jeopardised or weakened by any type of project, including Facebook’s Libra”, he said.
Italian Minister Roberto Gualtieri, for his part, considered that this was “a strong signal that we are united and committed to ensuring that, on the one hand, we support and promote financial innovation and technological development and that, on the other hand, this should go hand in hand with the preservation of financial stability, consumer protection and the protection of our shared sovereignty”.
In their declaration, the Ministers stress that European legislation should provide for these crypto-assets to be linked to an EU currency or the euro. In addition, they should be registered and deposited in an EU-approved bank.
Furthermore, future EU legislation should, according to the Ministers, adequately address the specific issues that asset-backed crypto-assets may raise in terms of money laundering. Any provider of services related to such assets operating in the EU would also have to comply with the requirements of the general data protection regulation.
See the joint statement: https://bit.ly/35uLtFU (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)