Key facts:
The vote on the final draft of the MiCA Law in the European Parliament was set for the next 14th of
The final proposal is to include cryptocurrencies in compliance with the EU Taxonomy.
After a two-week postponement, the vote on the Regulation on Cryptoactive Markets, better known as the MiCA Law, in the European Parliament was set for next Monday, March 14. The law, which would initially be discussed on Monday, February 28, had met with strong opposition in the bitcoinier community, considering that it implied a “de facto” ban on Bitcoin.
As announced by the rapporteur MEP of the project, Stefan Berger, in the draft that will be discussed on Monday, the controversial environmental clause to outlaw cryptocurrencies that, like Bitcoin, are based on proof-of-work (PoW) mining. “An independent discussion of the Proof of Work is no longer planned in the [reglamento] MiCA,” Berger announced on his Twitter account Monday.
Instead, the parliamentarian suggested include the cryptocurrencies in the field of action of another environmental regulation of the European Union, known as Sustainable Financial Taxonomy. “In view of the important debate on sustainability, my suggestion is to include crypto assets, like all other financial products, in the Taxonomy area,” Berger explained. In his opinion, the Taxonomy «could provide clarity and guarantee a better information base for consumers».
What does the Sustainable Financial Taxonomy regulation imply?
The taxonomy regulation, in force since mid-2021, sets the criteria that qualify an economic activity or investment as “environmentally sustainable”. This rating depends on how such activities contribute to the environmental objectives of the European Union.
The application of this rule would imply that activities such as Bitcoin trading or mining, must show that they contribute substantially with at least one of the six environmental objectives, do not cause significant damage to the other five, and comply with minimum social guarantees, to be included in the Taxonomy.
The environmental objectives established in the regulation are the mitigation of climate change; adaptation to climate change; sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources; transition to a circular economy; pollution prevention and control; and protection and recovery of biodiversity and ecosystems.
Earlier this year, the European Commission used the criteria of the Sustainable Financial Taxonomy regulation to qualify the nuclear power and natural gas as environmentally sustainable economic activities. It should be noted that a growing number of Bitcoin mining farms are using green energy« like gasin its operations.
Stefan Berger reported that the draft of the MiCA Law has been available to MEPs since last Monday 7. Berger believes that the MiCA Law has the potential to become a global standard, for which he called on his colleagues in the European Parliament to support the legal text in the vote.
“The strong support for MiCA is a strong signal from the EU Parliament for a technologically neutral and innovation-friendly financial sector.”
The European Parliament has been working on the MiCA Law since 2020 and according to what has been reported in the European media, its goals include the creation of a committee that acts as a supervisor of the cryptocurrency market in the 27 countries of the European Union. Likewise, the project would seek a framework to supervise and sanction activities with “risky cryptocurrencies”, including stablecoins.
As reported by CriptoNoticias, some experts question that the MiCA Law approach tends to establish the same line of laws that govern the traditional stock market.