The European Commission is to work alongside the European Central Bank (ECB) in probing a range of ‘policy, legal and technical’ pitfalls that could emerge as part of plans to introduce a digital euro crypto-currency in mid-2021.
The move comes just a week after the ECB closed a public consultation on the efforts, which resulted in ‘privacy’ being the number one concern among stakeholders.
EURACTIV understands that staff working across Commission departments, including Financial Services, Economy and Digital Affairs, will be mobilised to form part of a new group working alongside colleagues at the ECB to explore “the possibility of issuing a digital euro, as a complement to cash and payment solutions supplied by the private sector.”
Donald Trump s Twitter Ban Concerns World Leaders, Officials
On 1/12/21 at 8:06 AM EST
While world leaders largely condemned the ugly scenes of chaos and insurrection in Washington, D.C. last week, some have spoken out against the decision of major social media companies to ban President Donald Trump from their platforms for fear of him inciting more unrest before President-elect Joe Biden s inauguration.
Leaders and senior government officials across the world have expressed concern at the decision to remove Trump s pages from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram among others after he incited the violence at the Capitol last week. Several suggested the move set a worrying precedent for freedom of expression online, regardless of Trump s inflammatory behavior.
The Bavarian-governing party, the Christian Social Union is adopting its digital strategy this week. Among other things, it calls for a digitally sovereign Europe, but some of the plans smack of national unilateralism. EURACTIV Germany reports.
With the German election year now up and running, every party initiative, every meeting, and every paper is viewed as part of the campaign.
This is also the case with the Bavarian sister party of the conservative CDU, the CSU’s, strategy meeting on Wednesday and Thursday (6-7 January). A draft resolution on the Bavarian conservatives’ “Digital Agenda 2021” was circulated in advance.
Thomas Duhr, vice president of the German Digital Economy Association (BVDW) eV, sees this as a “prelude to the federal election campaign.”
Handover of the report to Ambassador Jürg Lauber, Chair of the Open Ended Working Group on cybersecurity at the United Nations in Geneva (Switzerland).
Despite such alarming figures, for the majority
in private enterprise and government it is business as usual while most
ordinary people feel less concerned. The situation in academia is similar, where
cybersecurity is still considered a marginal topic, even in technical
universities where it should be a vital part of their programmes.
But change may be on the horizon. Polish
students taking part in the Bridge Foundation Regional Cyber Labs reviewed the
university curricula across disciplines and assembled practical recommendations
An EU member state review
– Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President for Digital, European Commission.
Story of the week: Online platform giants will be forced to abide by a broad range of obligations as part of ambitious new plans laid out by the European Commission in its Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) on Tuesday.
Under a new set of obligations as part of the Digital Markets Act rules, platforms will be banned from using data gathered on their core service to offer other services in competition with rivals and there will be prohibitions on certain self-preferencing activities.