Valdis Dombrovskis, the current finance commissioner of the European Union, on Tuesday, said that he wants to bring legislation to regulate digital currencies like Facebook’s Libra .
“We must address risks such as unfair competition, cybersecurity, and threats to financial stability,” Dombrovskis told EU lawmakers in his confirmation hearing. “For instance, Europe needs a common approach on crypto-assets, such as Libra. I intend to propose new legislation on this.”
Dombrovskis is the former prime minister of Latvia and is also competing for an extension of his current position with EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, and Dutch politician and diplomat Frans Timmermans.
The hearing of Dombrovskis is still ongoing as of press time and will be followed by two separate hearings of the other two nominees.
Tough stance of Europe against crypto as money
In Europe, the crypto debate has gained a lot of steam lately, especially with the concerns over the launch of Libra.
France always remained at the forefront, and its finance minister vowed to block Facebook’s digital currency from launching in Europe. He also believes that it is a threat to the monetary sovereignty of nations.
Germany also joined France in the fight against digital currencies and passed a Blockchain strategy to push back the establishment of any parallel currency.
The tough stance of lawmakers also forced the executives of Facebook to come forward and defend Libra, stating that it is not a threat to fiats.
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank (ECB) is concerned with the potential use of Libra in money laundering and terror financing.
Facebook set up the Libra Association in Switzerland and is seeking a payment system license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). The regulator, however, made it clear that it can only check the compliance of the project against money laundering, and for a project of such scale, global approval is needed.
