[ad_1]
Six Southern Member States of the EU, including France, Italy, Spain and Malta, position themselves as European leaders in the development of blockchain technology to be used by governments.
A group known as the "Mediterranean sects" on Tuesday invited Brussels to promote the "Ledger distribution technology" (DLT) that is more associated with cryptocurrencies, but is increasingly used by governments to offer services to citizens.
The declaration, signed by France, Italy, Spain, Malta, Cyprus, Portugal and Spain, was agreed on Tuesday in the margins of a meeting of EU transport ministers in Brussels.
In an effort to promote the use of technology outside cryptocurrencies, governments state that DLT can be a "turning point" also to increase the efficiency of the southern EU economies.
The group asserts government services such as "education, transport, mobility, shipping, land registry, customs, business register and health care" that can be "transformed" with the use of DLT, whose supporters say it offers protection for the more stringent privacy for citizens and can impose less bureaucratic burdens on "electronic services" provided by the government.
"This can result not only in the improvement of e-government services, but also in greater transparency and reduction of administrative burdens, better customs collection and better access to public information", says the statement.
Silvio Schembri, Malta's innovation minister who is driving the push to use blockchain technology in governments, told the FT that Malta was hoping to become a "blockchain" island in Europe. Malta is the smallest member of the EU.
"Malta is the world's first legislator to offer a regulatory environment for all blockchain technology, and we are not only interested in cryptocurrencies," said Schembri. He cited examples including Malta that offers students the opportunity to receive educational certificates and qualifications using blockchain.
So far, Brussels has avoided issuing EU-wide rules to monitor the development of blockchains or cryptocurrencies, but has warned national regulators about the risks to financial stability posed by the rapid emergence of volatile trade in cryptocurrencies.
