Federal Minister of Germany for Finance, Olaf Scholz, has expressed his open support to digitize the euro; however, he remains critical towards private currency projects in the likes of Facebook’s much-talked-about crypto project Libra. The Minister shared his thoughts while talking to a local news outlet called Wirtschafts Woche.
As per the reports, Scholz stays “very, very critical” on Libra. On the other hand, he feels that the e-euro will prove to be great for the financial system of Europe, especially when the world is experiencing economic globalization wave.
Explaining further, Scholz stated that such type of payment system would not only be great for Europe’s financial center but also for its incorporation into the world’s finance system. He also iterated that they shouldn’t be leaving this field to Russia, China, the U.S., or any other private providers.
Scholz also expressed his strong belief regarding currency issuance power. He said that it should remain under the authority of the government and not with the private players. That’s because currency publication is a key component of the state sovereignty, so it should not be left to private firms, he added.
It is important to note that Scholz’s thoughts are very similar to other European leaders, for instance, Bruno Le Maire, Finance minister of France. Le Maire had stated that France is planning to block Facebook’s crypto Libra in the EU since they are concerned about the threats it would pose to the national currencies’ sovereignty, according to reports published in September 2019.
CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, also echoed the same thoughts in the previous week as he shared how he is averse to the idea of a firm to involve in the currency issuance matters.
As is the known fact, the criticisms of Libra are not new. The US lawmakers had previously asked the social networking giant to delay their crypto project until it managed to receive regulatory approvals. The US House Committee is pressuring Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, to testify on this matter before January next year.
In the meantime, the leading financial company, PayPal, revealed in the past week that they’ve decided to back out from the Libra Association due to their plans of working on their own goal.