Germany’s federal government has opposed authorising Facebook’s upcoming Libra Cryptocurrency in the Europe Union.
Thomas Heilmann, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) parliamentarian is responsible for all the blockchain-related decisions with the policies of CDU, and later the Christian Social Union in Bavaria is set to authorise them in September. Heilmann said that “not to allow market-relevant private stable coins.” was agreed in the coalition and he has further explained saying, “Up to now, the economy has done a great job in countering crises and inflation with measures taken by central banks. Once a digital currency provider dominates the market, it will be quite difficult for competitors.”
Heilman also made clear that just like Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister Europe also should consider its own “public cryptocurrency” which would be a competitor to Facebook’s Libra. And in a meeting of European Union finance ministers in Helsinki, Le Maire said that he would be discussing the benefits of launching a European public cryptocurrency in the next month. He also thinks that Facebook’s Libra might prove to be a threat to financial stability, the consumers, and even to “the sovereignty of European states.”.
While Germany opposes Facebook’s Libra, Switzerland, is open to Facebook’s Libra. Mark Branson, the director of Financial Market Supervisory Authority, said that his agency is open to the international co-operation for the way that would regulate Facebook’s Libra. He believes that this issue of Libra can be handled only by the global coordination and consultation and has further added, saying, “Such a ‘beauty contest’ did not exist. Our first contact with the initiators took place after the decision for Switzerland had already been made and communicated. That’s positive. The ‘jurisdiction shopping’ you alluded to would be very sensitive. It would put pressure to get as loose as possible standards.”