A boost for the blockchain infrastructure when the EU adopts the Digital Decade policy programme
The European Parliament has resoundingly passed a vote endorsing the EU’s Digital Decade policy programme, which includes investment in a “pan-European blockchain-based infrastructure” as part of its 2030 goals.
The “Path to the Digital Decade” program is a step towards the EU’s digitization goals, including improved data infrastructure, widespread high-performance computing, the launch of several 5G internet corridors and investment in blockchain and web3 solutions.
Originally proposed by the European Commission in March 2021, the political program sets up a monitoring and cooperation mechanism to ensure that the EU moves forward towards certain key objectives, namely:
- A digitally skilled population and highly qualified digital professionals.
- Secure and sustainable digital infrastructure.
- Digital transformation of businesses.
- Digitization of public services.
The “mechanism” itself will combine a shared monitoring system, an annual report on the state of the digital decade, multi-annual roadmaps, a framework to address areas of insufficient progress, and support for multi-country projects.
The EU intends to accelerate and facilitate new and existing multi-country projects using combined investments from the EU budget, including from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, member states and the private sector.
Cross-border blockchain initiatives are among those likely to benefit, one example being the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), which is a network of distributed nodes across Europe that aims to deliver public services across borders “with the highest standards for security and privacy,” using blockchain technology.
The first step now for the Digital Decade policy program will be the European Commission’s first annual report on the “State of the Digital Decade”, which it hopes will be adopted by June 2023, and from which it will determine the best way forward towards its larger digitization goal.
A gentle embrace
The 529-22 vote for the policy program is more evidence of the EU’s embrace of innovative technology, which it claims does not conflict with a desire to better regulate the digital asset space in its proposed Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA). ) legislation.
Introduced to be the new rules and standards governing digital assets in the EU, “MiCA will better protect Europeans who have invested in these assets, preventing abuse of crypto-assets, while being innovation-friendly to maintain the EU’s attractiveness,” said Bruno Le Maire, French Minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, when the proposal was tentatively adopted in June.
MiCA will bring regulation of services related to the digital asset markets and new rules for the classification and issuance of digital assets, including “stablecoins”, trading venues and wallets.
The official vote on MiCA has been delayed until February next year, but in light of recent events in the digital asset industry, lawmakers are likely to try to pass it into law.
See: The presentation of the BSV Global Blockchain Convention, BSV On-chain Ecosystem Development in Europe
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