EU rebuilds its blockchain infrastructure

 

EU rebuilds

its blockchain infrastructure

Belgium will assume the presidency of

the Council of the European Union in January 2024 and

according to a senior government official

will develop blockchain technology

as part of its main agenda for the bloc.

According to Matteo Michel

Belgium's Minister of State for Digitization, Europe lags behind

other regions in digital transformation because of

the way its data is stored in traditional silos.

In a recent interview

Michel reaffirmed Belgium's commitment to developing

public infrastructure for blockchain technology

focusing on the exchange of data and resources in the region.

Michel noted that many countries

are currently working on blockchain-based applications.

It would be useful to

build such applications on a common infrastructure.

He also emphasized that it

must be the blockchain administered by the government.

The Council of

the European Union is one of the main institutions in

the European Union, working to amend and approve

or challenge

the legislation proposed by the European Commission

in cooperation with the European Parliament.

The presidency of

the Council rotates among member states every six months

and Spain has been in power since July this year

with Belgium taking over on January 1, 2024.

Belgium wants to

restart the European Blockchain Infrastructure Project (EBSI).

Launched in 2018

the European blockchain infrastructure is the first of

its kind at the EU level, with network nodes distributed throughout the region.

Although it has targeted some key areas such as decentralized identity

it has not achieved the expected success.

Belgium proposes to rename infrastructure 

"Europeum"

and to include it within

the European Digital Infrastructure Consortium.

The Consortium's role is to pool resources

from Member States to explore costly scientific and technical projects.

The inclusion of "Europeum"

in this consortium will open up enormous funding opportunities

for the project, as it currently receives funding of

only 1 million euros (US $ 1.1 million).

In the first phase

"Europeum" will focus on areas of public administration

including the storage of credentials such as driver's licences

and identity documents so that they can be easily retrieved

and recognized via blockchain technology.

"Europeum"

is expected to expand to support digital twins

for physical sites and the next digital euro.

Matteo Michel asserts:

"Blockchain technology can restore control over citizen

data regarding security, transparency and privacy."

Michel adds that "Europeum"

will in the future expand to areas outside the European Union.

He also revealed that Belgium was in talks with countries

such as South Korea and Japan to explore means of connecting

 "Europeum" with the infrastructure in these countries.