Belgium is leading an effort to revitalize the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), a project aimed at developing a Europe-wide blockchain system for secure document management. During Belgium’s presidency of the EU Council early next year, the government plans to make EBSI a priority and accelerate its development.
The goal is to create a public blockchain infrastructure that allows EU nations to reliably verify official documents like driver’s licenses and property records. Belgium’s Secretary of State for Digitization, Mathieu Michel, outlined 4 main objectives for the country’s EU Council presidency, one of which is advancing EBSI.
Michel envisions rebranding EBSI as “Europeum” and positioning it not just as a technical initiative but as a broader European political project. Europeum could facilitate cross-border verification of IDs and licenses and even support a potential digital euro.
A key tenet is using a public EU-developed blockchain rather than private alternatives to ensure security, transparency, and privacy while giving citizens control over their data. Several EU countries have already committed to the Europeum plan, which will be headquartered in Belgium, highlighting the country’s leadership in European digital innovation.
This blockchain focus aligns with wider EU regulatory consolidation around crypto/blockchain assets through efforts like the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF). CARF aims to standardize information sharing between tax authorities as oversight of digital assets increases globally.
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