While responding to questions in an interview, the French President voiced his support for the digital euro project and MiCA regulation.
Only days before the second round of the presidential election in France, the sitting president of the country, Emmanuel Macron, held an interview with the media to express his thoughts about the digital economy. This is a subject he has shied away from so much in the past. He voiced his support for the sector but insisted that he was fully behind the pan-European approach to the regulation of financial technology.
Macron Answers Queries on Digital Economy, Cautiously Supports Crypto Assets
The interview took place only two days before the runoff, where Macron is facing stiff competition from Marine Le Pen, a right-wing populist, according to the publication the Big Wale. Macron is expected to win but with a small margin. In the previous election in 2017, Macron got 66.1% in the second round.
When responding to questions on the digital economy, cryptos, and Web3, Macron was firm on his cautiousness to innovation.
“It represents … an opportunity not to be missed … for France, Europe, and future web generation. But it is also a social ….. challenge.”
Macron was fast to note the growing number of French unicorn firms, which rose from three to 26 during his tenure. The overall investment in France also increased five times. He also indicated setting the pace to reach 100 French firms with unicorn status (private startups valued over USD 1 billion) and 10 transforming into European giants by 2030.
One method of achieving this is supporting code learning in schools to train about 500,000 developers in the next five years. Macron also elaborated his stand on the European metaverse, indicating that they cannot simply depend on American and Chinese tech giants when it comes to Web3. Macron further pointed out that because of its cultural heritage, Europe already has an edge in the Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) industry.
When working on cultural policy, Macron indicated that the digital revolution must be factored in. “I want our main cultural institutions to develop an NFT policy, by promoting, disseminating, and protecting digital twins …” the sitting president added.
On the new European Parliament’s approach to crypto regulations, Macron said that the MiCA framework should not stand on the path to innovation. “I do not believe in a self-regulated financial sector. It would neither be sustainable nor democratic. .. public authorities to define the right conditions to help the sector develop in confidence …” affirmed Macron.
