France reports that Facebook’s Libra may not be released in Europe

The French finance minister reports that the Libra payment method as Facebook wants to introduce it will not be allowed to be released in Europe. He wants the European Union to regulate virtual currencies.

Minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday at a meeting of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris that there are serious objections to the Libra, according to CNBC. According to him, there can be no question of authorization of the development of the means of payment on European territory ‘under these circumstances’.

He reiterated previous objections that the virtual currency could undermine the sovereignty of countries’ currency. Le Maire previously criticized the Libra. According to critics, there are risks related to money laundering and the financing of, among other things, terrorism, in addition to competition concerns.

On Friday, the French minister said that, as far as he is concerned, the handling of virtual currencies should be regulated at European level. He also called for the development of a European public virtual currency. He did not provide further details about the plan, Reuters said.

Officially, the Geneva, Switzerland-based non-profit organization Libra is behind the payment method, but Facebook is the driving force behind it and has concrete plans to use the payment method on its platform. The virtual currency gets a reserve of a collection of bank assets ‘in currency of stable central banks’, which should guarantee stability. Earlier this week, Coindesk wrote that the Libra Association wants to register the Libra in Switzerland as a payment system.