7 major EU countries will develop blockchain.

[Paha87]

On December 4, seven EU countries, led by Malta and France, set up a group called the Mediterranean seven to promote the use of blockchain technology.

In the coming months, seven countries, which include France, Italy, Spain, Malta, Cyprus, Portugal and Spain, will work on the implementation of blockchain in education, transport, mobility, shipping, land cadastre, customer service, company registers and health care.

In a statement obtained by the Financial Times, says:

This may be due not only to the expansion of e-government services, but also to increased transparency and reduced administrative burden, improved collection of customs duties and greater access to public information.

Will this affect crypto?

Malta, currently home to the world's largest crypto-exchange Binance, has mostly been forward-looking and unbiased with respect to digital assets and blockchain previously. The country's flexible and practical regulatory framework has led to large cryptocurrency companies actively migrating to the region over the past 11 months.

Malta's participation in the initiative could have a positive impact on the European cryptocurrency sector as a whole, as this step indirectly demonstrates the approval of the other six countries of Malta's efforts to promote the growth of the local cryptocurrency market.

The formation of the Mediterranean seven is consistent with the G20's call to monitor and regulate cryptocurrency as an asset class and its surrounding market. Malta's Minister of innovation Silvio Chambry, who played a vital role in transforming Malta into a "Blockchain island," said:

Malta is the first global legislator to offer a regulatory environment for all blockchain technologies. We are not only interested in cryptocurrency, but we will also promote it.

Blockchain is the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies, but open blockchain protocols cannot run without incentive systems that are cryptocurrencies. These two technologies cannot work without each other, and the blockchain network can work without its own resource only if its structure is centralized.

As the group explores the potential of the blockchain and begins to integrate it into various areas of the European economy, natural digital assets could emerge, and therefore European countries could integrate a more practical regulatory framework related to this asset class.

Already in September, France approved the introduction of legislation regulating ICO, in an effort to become the first ICO center in Europe. At that time, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Meir said that the government hopes that the newly created legal framework for ICO will attract investors from all over the world.

Europe's Struggle

Despite the efforts of several European countries, such as the US and Malta, Europe has been trying to compete with the US, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Switzerland for several years.

Much of the cryptocurrency exchange volume in the global market is largely concentrated in three countries: the US, Japan, and South Korea, and most blockchain-related businesses moved to Japan and Singapore last year.

Apart from Malta and Switzerland, most of Europe's regional cryptocurrency markets are still significantly weaker compared to Asia and the US. The Mediterranean seven can use cryptocurrency and blockchain to create Europe's own ecosystem if regulators start providing a friendly environment for startups.

Link to the source of information (Russian) - https://altstake.io/news/7-krupnyh-stran-es-budut-razvivaty-blokcheyn