The European Union economy is the second-largest in the world after the United States, and it’s consistently growing. Member states are attentive for technological and innovation enhancement which make a tremendous impact on the Union’s growth. For the past several years EU interest in modern technologies increased, in particular, the member states have shown a significant attentiveness in blockchain technology and blockchain projects.

Blockchain technology isn’t a new term, but not all know that many public and private companies are already implementing it in various industries and niches. This revolutionary concept is based on a distributed digital ledger and has an advantage of decentralized and immutable nature. Because of the many benefits, blockchain becomes more and more appealing to the EU. Thus, member states are joining forces to create an approachable ecosystem for this technology and keep it flourishing within the Union.

To accelerate the process, the EU is initiating and launching projects which help to integrate and adopt blockchain technology in various areas. In this article, we want to highlight the main actions that the EU takes to establish blockchain unification and thereby ensure economic growth for all member states.

EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum

At the beginning of 2018, the European Commission launched the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum. This initiative was inspired by the rapidly growing demand for modern solutions to enhance the Union’s advancement in the current economic landscape. The project focuses on the central developments of blockchain technology, European stakeholders, and Europe’s engagement with international actors.

EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum is supported by the European Parliament and was represented by a former member of the Parliament Jakob von Weizsäcker. By implementing this project, the member states want to ease the integration of blockchain in various industries such as healthcare, finance, insurance, logistics, intellectual property, energy, and governmental services.

The ambition is to make blockchain adoption more accessible and distribute it among the member states. Many European companies are already using the technology, and the Observatory and Forum will ease the process.

European Blockchain Partnership

The 10th of April, 2018 was an exciting day for the European Union as 21 member states including Norway signed a declaration to join forces in creating the European Blockchain Partnership. The project was devoted to helping the members integrate blockchain projects in different industries and benefit the EU’s economy. It concentrates on public services and ensures its security and transparency.

Since the launch of the partnership, five more member states have joined it. The initiators of the project substantiate it as blockchain technology is proven to bring higher levels of security, scalability, and smooth flow of data. Countries that have joined the partnership will share a positive blockchain implementation experience, its integration practices, and distribute it through the stakeholding countries. The intention is to secure Europe’s public services and make the member states adopt this modern method.

My Health My Data

Many think that blockchain is only about cryptocurrencies and the finance industry. However, it’s not quite right, because the concept is widely implemented in various sectors; one of them is healthcare. As private medical data is sensitive, it has to be secured accordingly. Moreover, when more European residents are changing their residence countries and traveling around the Union, it is necessary to provide accessible medical information flow. Therefore, a project named “My Health My Data” came to life.

The operation has three years of the implementation period when participant countries will adopt blockchain to distribute medical data. It will also allow interested parties to be in charge of their information, deny and approve it, or give access to related parties.

Horizon Prize on Blockchains for Social Good

Directorate-General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology launched the EUR 5 million Horizon Prize to encourage companies and individual innovators to develop and implement blockchain projects. This initiative is devoted to easing the integration of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLTs). Finished projects should ensure higher levels of scalability, transparency, and security, not to mention, an active decentralized information flow.

Blockchain for Europe

Four of the most prominent blockchain organizations Ripple, the NEM Foundation, Emurgo, and Fetch.AI collaborated to set the “Blockchain for Europe” association. Mentioned parties signed the final contract to form the association on December 5th, 2018. With this project, organizations want to educate society about blockchain, highlight its benefits for many different areas of interest, and refute the most common misconceptions about the technology. They see Europe’s potential for blockchain to flourish and want to invite more Member States to participate in the process of integration.

“So for the foreseeable future, Member States will remain quite different regarding digitization. However, even so, we are facing many common challenges. Challenges which are much easier handled at EU level than at national level.” – Roberto Viola (Director General of DG Connect at the European Commission). Mr. Roberto Viola expresses his concern about the need for digital technologies in exchange for the EU’s economic growth. As he states, nothing can be done if all member states won’t cooperate to creating a better tomorrow for the newest advancements.

Therefore, Europe is joining forces and adapting blockchain technology to assorted industries. We are excited about this positive progress in blockchain projects which could open many doors for revolutionary technology all over the globe.

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