EU postpones final vote on MiCA for the second time in two months

Published at: Jan. 18, 2023

The final vote on European Union’s much-awaited crypto regulations called Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA) was deferred to April 2023. This marks the second delay in the final vote, earlier deferred from November 2022 to February.

The latest delay is attributed to a technical issue where the official 400-page document couldn’t be translated into the 24 official languages of the EU, reported The Block. Legal documents like the MiCA, which were drafted in English, must comply with EU regulations and be published in all 24 official languages of the union.

The first delay in November that deferred the final vote to February was also caused by similar translation issues. A delay in the final vote means European financial regulators have to wait longer before drafting the implementation rules for the legislation. Once the MiCA has received official approval, the financial regulators have 12 to 18 months to create the technical standards.

The European parliamentary committee passed the MiCA legislation in Oct 2022, nearly two years after it was first introduced in September 2020. The second delay comes even when there has been a growing demand for approving the legislation fast, especially in the wake of the crypto contagion caused by FTX.

Stefan Berger, a member of the European Parliament's economics committee, has compared the FTX scenario to the 2008 financial crisis and used "Lehman Brothers moments" to argue for the necessity for regulations such as MiCA.

Shame! The #FTX/#Alameda case has cost enormous trust. Such Lehman Brothers moments must be prevented in the crypto space. That's exactly what #MiCA is for. Crypto assets are not play money. Crypto asset service providers must ensure internal risk management mechanisms. https://t.co/zNrB8CdUbU

— Stefan Berger (@DrStefanBerger) November 9, 2022

With MiCA European policymakers aims to set a standard regulation that would establish harmonised rules for crypto-assets at the EU level, thereby providing legal certainty for crypto-assets not covered by existing EU legislation

The crypto regulation will establish guidelines for the operation, structure, and governance of issuers of digital asset tokens. The legislation will also offer rules on transparency and disclosure requirements for the issuing and admission to the trade of crypto-assets.