MEP Peter Jahr (EPP, German) expressed his wish for more regulation of cryptocurrency in the European Union, during a discussion in the Committee on Petitions (PETI) on Wednesday 25 January.
Rui Martins, a Portuguese petitioner and member of Citizens for Cybersecurity, said the EU should create a European deterrence plan for the use of cryptocurrency. The current outbreak of appreciation of these assets will, he believes, eventually affect the real economy negatively. However, he was unable to attend the discussion.
Mr Jahr supported the petitioner and questioned whether the rules soon to be put in place were sufficient. “This is a political debate we have to have”, he said.
Ivan Keller, Policy Officer at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Financial Stability and Capital Markets (DG FISMA), was reassuring. He noted that the co-legislators had adopted the ‘MiCA’ regulation framing the European crypto-asset market (see EUROPE 13040/35).
As for ‘ransomware’ or extortion software, there are anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing rules in the AMLD5 directive, including the customer identity verification process that crypto-asset service providers will have to put in place.
The petition has already been sent to the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. The European Commission must also respond.
To read the petition: https://aeur.eu/f/53i (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)