European Commission official plans to bring in new regulations for crypto, including Facebook’s Libra

Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president for the euro, social dialogue and financial services at the European Commission, plans to bring in new regulations for the cryptocurrency sector in the region.

“Europe needs a common approach on crypto-assets such as Libra. I intend to propose new legislation on this,” Dombrovskis told EU lawmakers at a hearing on Tuesday, as reported by Reuters.

The official, who is also a former prime minister of Latvia, further said that the EU should tackle “unfair competition, cybersecurity, and threats to financial stability” in regulating cryptocurrencies.

Interestingly, the European Commission was investigating "potential anti-competitive behavior" with regard to Facebook's proposed stablecoin Libra. The agency was exploring whether the Libra Association and its proposed payment stack, could prevent peers from being able to compete.

Meanwhile, France’s economy and finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, recently said that the country will halt the development of Libra in Europe because it threatens the “monetary sovereignty” of governments. Germany took a step ahead by passing a blockchain strategy that prevents any parallel currencies to be issued in the country, including Libra.