Faced with the United States’ desire to promote stable coins backed by the dollar, ECB Vice-President Luis de Guindos said on Monday 28 April, during a discussion with the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, that it was necessary to “revisit” the European Regulations governing crypto-assets (MiCA) in order to provide greater protection for European consumers.
“It’s very clear”: the United States has put “legislation in place to foster stable coins, indirectly to foster the use of the dollar”, said Mr de Guindos, in response to a question from Tomáš Kubín (PfE, Czech). In his view, Europe must adopt “a holistic approach” to counter this development, which poses risks to its strategic autonomy. He added: We should revisit the ‘MiCA’ regulation, because there are certain “imbalances” linked to shortcomings in consumer protection in other jurisdictions compared to the situation in Europe.
Anouk Van Brug (Renew Europe, Dutch) asked the former Spanish Finance Minister what could be done to promote the use of the euro in international transactions and as a reserve currency. Mr de Guindos advocated the establishment of “much more integrated” financial services markets in the EU, as well as the digital euro, a public initiative that fosters private innovation (see EUROPE 13617/26).
“There is an opportunity. It’s up to us to take advantage of it”, he said.
Mr de Guindos recalled the ECB’s recent decision to cut its key rates by 25 basis points, for the seventh time since June 2024 (see EUROPE 13624/7). Despite the “very high level of uncertainty” linked to international trade tensions, my “main message” is as follows: “We are confident that the disinflation process will continue”, he stressed. He said he was “a bit less optimistic” about economic growth, which should nevertheless remain positive in 2025.
Asked by Dirk Gotink (EPP, Dutch) about the impact on the ECB and financial systems of the power cuts, which hit Spain and Portugal at the same time (see other news), the ECB Vice-President admitted that he had been unable to reach his relatives in Spain. He felt it was necessary to learn from this major incident in order to prepare for future disruptions, because at the end of the day, “we are interconnected”.
See Mr de Guindos’ speech: https://aeur.eu/f/gkw (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)