Digital euro preferred by the Federal Minister of Finance of Germany

The German Federal Minister of Finance has said he is a supporter of the digital euro idea, but is against private currency projects such as Libra.

In an interview with local newspaper Wirtschafts Woche, Minister Olaf Scholz said he remains “very, very critical” about Libra. However, a digital euro would be good for Europe’s financial system, especially as a result of economic globalization.

“Such a payment system would be good for the European financial center and its integration into the global financial system”,

Scholz said.

“We should not lose ground in favor of China, Russia, the US or private suppliers.”

Similar to other European leaders, such as the French Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, Scholz is of the opinion that currency issuance is an attribute of states:

“A basic element of the sovereignty of the state is the issuance of currency, we cannot give this power to private companies.”

Digital Euro wins ground in front of Libra

Germany and France have previously stated that they will do their best to block the access of Libra cryptocurrencies to the respective countries. The US Congress is also worried and is putting pressure on Facebook to give further explanations about the project. The head of the financial and banking committee of the US House of Representatives has asked Mark Zuckerberg to come to the committee to answer questions.

The Libra Association have already suffered a loss as a result of these pressures – PayPal announced its decision to leave the association last week. The Libra Association Board of Directors is to sign the official charter of the organization on October 14th.