Belgium plans to accelerate the development of a European blockchain infrastructure as it holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union in early 2024.
The government of Belgium has announced its intention to expedite the establishment of a blockchain infrastructure in Europe while it holds the Council of the European Union presidency in early 2024. The proposal aims to simplify securely storing official documents such as property titles and driver’s licenses.
Minister of State for Digitization of Belgium, Mathieu Michel, told Science|Business on November 21 that the creation of a public blockchain for pan-European Union infrastructure is one of the four key objectives of the country’s impending presidency. The remaining three initiatives shall address the challenges of the digital economy, online anonymity, and artificial intelligence (AI).
Michel proposes reviving the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) initiative, which the European Commission and the European Blockchain Partnership, comprised of the 27 member states of the European Union plus Norway and Liechtenstein, launched in 2018:
“That is a technical project. If we want to build a common infrastructure, it has to become a European project and a political project.”
To perform public administration duties throughout the EU, including the authentication of driver’s licenses and other documents, the rebranded EBSI would be known as Europeum. Michel asserts that the undertaking may bolster the digital euro infrastructure.
The official stated that a public blockchain developed by EU member states is preferable to private alternatives:
“In terms of security, transparency, and privacy, the blockchain can give control back to the citizen of the data that belongs to them.”
Romania, Italy, Croatia, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, and Luxembourg have all ratified the European plan. The location of the project’s headquarters will be in Belgium.
The regulatory consolidation process on cryptocurrencies and blockchain is progressing consistently. A group of 47 national governments issued a joint commitment at the beginning of November to expeditiously incorporate the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), a novel international standard governing automated data exchange among tax authorities, into their domestic legal frameworks.
