EU Should Not Welcome Facebook's Libra Digital Currency - French Finance Minister

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Union, at present, should object to the development of Facebook's digital currency, the Libra, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Friday.

"My second proposal is to have a common European framework for digital currencies. We are all aware of the project currently on the table, there is the project from Facebook, the so-called Libra. I just want to recall that under the current conditions we should reject the development of Libra within the European Union", the minister told reporters upon arrival for a Eurogroup meeting in Helsinki.

Le Maire cited consumer security, financial stability, and sovereignty of the EU states as the main reasons behind his conviction that Libra should not be welcomed in the bloc at the moment.

Facebook Libra Coin Aufrecht

CC BY-SA 2.0 / Christoph Scholz / Facebook Libra Coin Aufrecht

"But we should also think about the best way of reducing the cost of international transactions. We should think about the possibility of reducing the delays of financial international transactions within the European Union or outside the European Union. So this is my second proposal, to think about this question of digital currencies and maybe thinking about the possibility of having a public digital currency", he added.

Facebook is planning to launch its blockchain cryptocurrency in 2020. The authorities in the United States have expressed concern over these plans, with President Donald Trump tweeting that Facebook "must seek a new Banking Charter" if it wants to be a bank.