The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. On September 27, the EU Competitiveness Council met in Brussels to discuss how to support Europe’s digitization, particularly with regard to artificial intelligence — an area that has tremendous potential, but also faces extreme global competition. AI, of course, runs on data. The unfortunate reality is that U.S. tech companies control and exploit large amounts of European data, in turn monopolizing our digital economy. That’s why I, among 16 other executives, signed a letter to the council’s ministers—who engaged …

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has decided to extend its restrictions on contracts for differences (CFDs), including crypto-based ones. The agency has announced its decision in an official release published Friday, September 28. A CFD is a contract signed between a buyer and a seller, which stipulates that the difference between the current value of an asset and its value at contract time will be compensated by the seller if positive, or by the buyer if negative. According to ESMA’s release, the restrictions, which originally came into effect on August 1, will be renewed for another three months …

Italy is about to enter the European Blockchain Partnership, according to the country's Member of Parliament (MP) Mirella Liuzzi, as cited by Cointelegraph Italy Thursday, September 27. According to Liuzzi, the partnership — a collaboration of 26 EU countries — will be signed by the Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Social Policies Luigi Di Maio on September 28 in Brussels. In an interview with Key4biz, Liuzzi added: "Joining the partnership will allow Italy [...] to define its own line in the development of [blockchain] technology — a practice which the previous government had never implemented". Luizzi, the MP from …

Today, the Assemblée Nationale (the French parliament’s lower house) is initiating a debate about a legal project introduced last June by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, which contains some relevant changes for the French regulatory framework with regard to crypto assets and ICOs, together with many proposals aimed at sustaining the development of “liberated companies that are better funded, more innovative and fairer.” This innovation, stimulated by the Plan d'Action pour la Croissance et la Transformation des Entreprises (PACTE – Action Plan for Business Growth and Transformation) would be an important step drawing France closer to …

Software giant Microsoft has requested European Union (E.U.) approval of its $7.5 billion acquisition of web-based hosting service GitHub, Reuters reported September 17. According to Reuters, Microsoft filed the request last Friday, and the decision will be made by October 19. GitHub is an open-source coding website, a repository which hosts developers’ source code projects in a number of different programming languages and keeps track of any changes made. In 2017, the GitHub community reportedly reached 24 million developers, working with 67 million repositories. With the acquisition, the company is looking to strengthen its cloud computing arm against American electronic …

The autonomous community of Aragon in northeastern Spain will be the first in the country to apply blockchain technology in its public administration, local news agency Europa Press reports Monday, September 17. Aragon is one of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities, which were created with the goal of guaranteeing a qualified amount of autonomy for different nationalities and regions in the country. Fernando Gimeno, the counsellor of Finance and Public administration in the Aragonese government, has signed a contract with Alastria — a blockchain ecosystem of more than 274 entities, including companies and institutions which create blockchain-based tools in line with …

France’s Minister for the Economy and Finance has announced that the government has accepted an article of the Business Growth and Transformation bill (PACTE) dedicated to Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), according to a tweet posted Wednesday, September 12. As finance Minister Bruno Le Maire states, the French stock markets regulator Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) is now empowered to give licenses to companies that want to raise funds via an ICO, with the legislation aiming to help protect contributors’ interests. Le Maire also hopes that the current legal framework for ICOs in France will “attract investors from all over the …

The European Central Bank (ECB) has “no plans” to issue its own digital currency, President Mario Draghi told the European Parliament Wednesday, September 12. Addressing a query by MEP Jonás Fernández, Draghi said “substantial development” was still needed in the underlying technology behind cryptocurrencies before the Central Bank would consider using them. “The ECB and the Eurosystem currently have no plans to issue a central bank digital currency,” he summarized: “Nonetheless, we are carefully analysing the potential consequences of issuing such a currency as a complement to cash.” Explaining why no plans were afoot at the ECB, Draghi drew attention …

The European Union (E.U.) will focus on the development of crypto asset classification and regulatory mapping, European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis claimed at a recent meeting of Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) in Vienna. According to Dombrovskis, crypto assets are “here to stay,” and the crypto market still “continues to grow” despite “recent turbulence.” The Commissioner claimed that, in order to address major issues around cryptocurrencies, the E.U. will focus on the main challenge that is how to “categorize and classify” crypto assets this year. He also stated that the organization will consider whether existing E.U. financial regulation …

A report from a Belgian think tank that will reportedly be distributed to European Union (E.U.) ministers calls for unified legislation on cryptocurrencies and more scrutiny on how they are distributed to investors, Reuters reported September 5. The report, ostensibly released by Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, comes ahead of an informal meeting of economic and financial affairs ministers from the E.U. on cryptocurrency investments and taxation of the digital economy. The meeting will take place in Austria from September 7-8. According to Reuters, the report urges the regulation of cryptocurrency exchanges and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) at the E.U. level …

Members of the European Parliament along with blockchain experts met Tuesday, September 4, to discuss possible regulations for Initial Coin Offerings (ICO). At the recent EU event entitled “Regulating ICOs — Is the Crowdfunding Proposal what we were looking for?” the attendees examined the potential complications currently arising in the ICO industry. Ashley Fox, a British Member of the European Parliament, pinpointed three main issues to consider at the meeting: challenges faced by ICOs in raising capital, the existing regulatory approaches on the matter, and the future perspectives of the industry. In his testimony, Peter Kerstens, chairman of the the …

Calls to enforce clear and uniform guidelines for crypto across European Union (EU) member states are to be made before EU finance ministers this week, Reuters reports September 5. Brussels-based think tank Bruegel is said to have prepared a new report devoted to the crypto industry for EU finance ministers, who are due to meet this Friday and Saturday in Vienna, Austria. The report is said to reserve particular scrutiny for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) as well as for crypto exchanges, the latter of whose presence in the EU is set to increase this year. As the Bruegel document reportedly …