Building the global leadership of the European Union

Eva Kaili, MEP, Rapporteur of the European Parliament for the resolution Blockchain explains the importance of building the global leadership of the European Union where
blockchain technology is affected

Opening the space for a new technology, like blockchain, in the political and regulatory sphere
level, it's a challenging task. It looks like a business of political entrepreneurship. Governmental organizations always have their own priorities and immediate needs to be covered. The short term is the "default" condition. Creating a demand for political and regulatory commitment around a farsighted and potentially disruptive technology is not always easy. Especially when this technology is in the middle of an hype, it challenges existing value chains and is represented by many legacy institutions as a legal tool or even a scammer.

Having obtained permission to write the Blockchain Resolution of the European Parliament, the first priority was to start educating people about the fact that blockchain is a technology of general use. Blockchain not only on crypto-goods. It is an enabling technology that can be used in a wide range of industries, including energy, supply chain management, education, creative industries, the financial sector, health care, transport etc. The great result of the Blockchain resolution is that it describes it as an infrastructure based on which we can develop smarter institutions, a more efficient public sector that increases the value for citizens and a solid foundation for Internet of Things applications (IoT ).

Of course, crypto-assets are a distinct enabling technology that we can not ignore. The difference between a cryptocurrency and an initial currency (ICO) is that the former has no counterpart, while the latter has. As for cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ethercoin (ETC) and so on, and so on, these provide us with an indicator for the evolution of money. The concept of money has changed many times throughout history. We are again in a moment of change. In the end, we will need to have money that can be coded in an intelligent contract. Cryptocurrencies can help in this direction. A "Crypto-Euro" is a case that we should explore soon. On the other hand, ICOs have proven to be instruments capable of mobilizing idle capital in high-risk start-up projects. We addressed this issue during the negotiations on the regulation on crowdfunding platforms and we asked both the European Commission and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to propose a framework that would allow international organizations of internal product to guarantee a safe and legally secure environment.

Another major challenge that we have highlighted in the European Parliament's Blockchain resolution concerns the development of an ecosystem that will support distributed ledger technology (DLP) in general. This challenge includes cyber security, data protection, energy wastage issues, as well as issues relating to the interoperability of registers, self-sufficiency and digital identity and issues related to applicability. legal framework for smart contracts. Especially in the area of ​​smart contracts, the challenges are as big as their potential. Good governance methods and best practices can be explored through in-depth examination of the use cases and the development of blockchain application in the protected environment of regulatory sandboxes.

The European Commission has already impressively built the mandate it has taken from the European Parliament. There are already four cases of use under the control of the Commission. There is also a hackathon of blockchain applications for the social good that interested parties can apply until April 2019. Usage cases are the elements we need to promote blockchain technology and create certainty and trust around it. The building of trust does not derive from the regulation of technology in itself. It comes from the regulation of its uses. This is the normative concept of "technological neutrality". The other regulatory concept that we have used is "business model neutrality". With this principle, we mean that the regulator does not favor any business model over another. If blockchain applications can interfere with existing value chains and replace them with brand new ones, then let it be that way.

The most important thing is that the blockchain is a technological space in which the European Union (EU) can become a global leader. Perhaps this is the reason why all the political parties of the EU voted in favor of the resolution, something, which has been a political event in Brussels for a decade. The European Commission is ready to move things forward quickly and to propose frameworks and initiatives that will strengthen the overall competitive advantage of the EU in terms of setting standards and developing ecosystems.
With this in mind, we have ensured that significant amounts of money will be spent on blockchain through grants from the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). Similarly, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) will fund blockchain applications and research, independently or within the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) and the program InvestEU.

It is clear that the EU invests and opens up opportunities. Now it is the decision of European citizens, both start-ups, big companies, universities, research institutes and government organizations, to start taking the risks of experimentation and develop enhanced commercial and non-commercial solutions. Making the EU a global leader in the industry is essentially a bottom-up function and the success of the blockchain experiment can be copied to other technologies, which are even more complex, such as artificial intelligence (AI), neuroscience and quantum computing.

Eva Kaili, MEP (S & D, Greece)
Rapporteur of the European Parliament of Blockchain resolution
Tel: +32 (0) 2 28 45613
[email protected]
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