The Eurogroup, meeting in an inclusive format on 9 July, adopted a statement on digital finance setting out ministers’ views and ambitions for the development of the sector across the EU. It is a welcome signal of where the EU intends to take this agenda.

The statement connects tokenisation and distributed ledger technology to the completion of the Savings and Investments Union and to the international role of the euro, and places the digital euro at the centre of the retail payments agenda as a matter of monetary sovereignty. Digital finance is treated not as a specialised corner of the market but as part of how the European financial system will function.

Much of it speaks to the conditions our members work in. Ministers affirm that policy should remain technology-neutral, that market-led solutions have an essential part to play, and that ongoing dialogue between the public and private sectors will be needed to identify and overcome barriers. They also caution that without shared standards, a proliferation of DLT networks risks reproducing the fragmentation Europe has spent years working to overcome, a concern EDFA set out in its open letter on the Market Integration and Supervision Package in March.

With negotiations on both the Market Integration and Supervision Package and the Single Currency Package expected to conclude before the end of the year, and the Commission’s consultation on the crypto-asset framework already under way, EDFA will continue to engage across these files.