On 10 April, at the EC Digital Day 2018, the European Union made a big step forward towards a great blockchain future. On that date 22 EU member countries have signed a Declaration on the creation of a European Blockchain Partnership.
Long time the European Union has taken a positive, but wait-and-see attitude towards blockchain and distributed ledger technology. But that is changing. Many EU member states have announced or have started initiatives with blockchain technology, and the European Blockchain Partnership Сommittee now wants to ensure those projects can work across borders, consolidate expertise and address challenges such as disintermediation, trust, security and traceability by design. Of special concern are the many initiatives from banks, insurance companies, stock exchanges and other business sectors, leading to diverse systems that cannot work together.
EU takes leadership on blockchain
Since mid-last year the European Blockchain Partnership Сommittee is working hard to unite blockchain initiatives in the various EU member states. At the EU blockchain Conference in Brussels, the more than 600 participants asked Europe to take leadership on this topic. In the same month, in its Digital Single Market mid-term review, the European Blockchain Partnership Сommittee recognised blockchain-inspired technologies as “having huge potential for our administrations, businesses and the society in general.”
The main goals of this collaboration/partnership are to
- avoid “fragmented approaches” to blockchain technology by sharing information and facilitate cooperation on technical and regulatory aspects of the blockchain technology between the different countries who join the group
- ensure and facilitate the interoperability and wider deployment of blockchain-based services
- establish an environment through which legal blockchain technologies can flourish throughout Europe and create ways to promote blockchain applications across the EU-wide Digital Single Market.
- cement Europe as a world-leader in the development and launch of blockchain technologies.
It was stated that the Partnership will “contribute to the creation of an enabling environment, in full compliance with EU laws and with clear governance models that will help services using Blockchain flourish across Europe.”
The European Blockchain Partnership is intended to allow Europe to play a leading role globally in the development and roll-out of blockchain technologies. The establishment of this Partnership should not only ensure that EU member states will be at the forefront of blockchain technology, but also ensure that Europe will have the power to keep up with Asia and America in terms of their rapid blockchain technology progression.
EU investment in blockchain-related projects
The European Commission has been funding blockchain projects throughout the EU already since 2013. They have invested more than Euro 80 million in projects supporting the use of blockchain in technical and societal areas.
The investment plans of the newly created European Blockchain Partnership are even more impressive. For that purpose the European Union launched a venture capital “fund of funds” aimed at boosting investment in innovative start-ups and narrow Europe’s gap with the United States and China. During the next few years the Partnership is expected to invest up to €340 million into perspective blockchain projects. The European Commission will thereby broaden EU financing of pilot projects in other areas of public interest like eGovernment, eHealth, or eTransport.
EU funded projects
The European Blockchain Partnership has started its work in a promising way. Two blockchain projects are already being funded since its launch including MHDMD and DECODE. The MHDMD project –acronym for My Health My Data – is a blockchain project for ehealth. MHMD thereby works as a platform for medical data. The DECODE project is aimed at improving the security of owning and managing data. It provides tools affording individuals the ability to control whether they keep their personal data private or share it for the public good.