Belgium Aims to Accelerate European Blockchain Infrastructure Development

According to Cointelegraph, Belgium plans to speed up the development of a European blockchain infrastructure during its presidency of the EU Council in early 2024. The proposal aims to facilitate the secure storage of official documents such as driving licenses and property titles. The development of a public blockchain for the pan-EU infrastructure is among the four priorities of Belgium’s upcoming presidency, according to the country's secretary of state for digitization, Mathieu Michel. Michel suggests rebooting the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) project, which was set up in 2018 in collaboration with the European Blockchain Partnership, consisting of the 27 EU member states plus Norway and Liechtenstein. The renewed EBSI would be renamed Europeum and used for public administration tasks, such as verifying driver’s licenses and other documents across the EU. Michel believes the project could also support the digital euro infrastructure and emphasizes the importance of using a public blockchain developed by the EU member-states, rather than private alternatives. Currently, Italy, Croatia, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Luxembourg, and Romania have signed up for the Europeum plan, with the project's head office located in Belgium. The process of regulatory consolidation around crypto and blockchain is progressing steadily, with nearly 50 national governments recently pledging to swiftly transpose the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) into their domestic law systems.