Brussels eurozone countries issue sovereign blockchain debt, although limiting emissions to 50 million euros - The European Union is studying to take a step further in the technological development of the markets within the process to put in place regulations on criptoactivos and platforms that operate with digital assets and the creation of a sandbox european in which to test the application of the technology of record distributed, more known as DLT and including the blockchain, that Brussels was presented last September and has been revised by the european Parliament.

This new step may involve the application of technology blockchain to the issuance of sovereign debt of the 19 countries of the eurozone from 2024, according to Five Days, which ensures that the European Commission is studying this possibility next to the Parliament, which had submitted proposals regarding the type of financial products to which they apply the standards which prepares Brussels and the economic limits to this type of emissions.

In particular, the European Parliament opted apply new financial services technologies to the sovereign debt, in addition to shares and bonds, as provided by the regulations of the pilot program on DLT presented in September, while limiting the emission of bonds and shares to 50 million euros, compared to the maximum limits of $ 200 million for titles and 500 million for bonds that were raised initially.

Brussels eurozone countries issue sovereign blockchain debt

The reduction of the maximum emission thresholds raised by the European Parliament seeks to prevent financial stability, investor protection and market integrity from being put at risk, according to the economic newspaper of the Prisa Group, which reveals that the total market value of securities traded on a platform with DLT technology will be set at 2,500 million euros.

This regulation also seeks the implementation of a Community sandbox, in which Brussels seeks that all European countries, including those with smaller financial markets, can carry out tests with blockchain and other DLT technologies, in addition to raising the possibility of favoring the trading of ETFs or exchange-traded funds, in order to establish a definitive regulation at the European level.

Brussels eurozone countries issue sovereign blockchain debt

The testing period in which the Community sandbox would be in operation would be established in 5 years, according to Five Days, which ensures that after that period the European authorities will consider extending this regime to trading infrastructures with DLT, with a view to its definitive entry into force occurs around 2024.

In Spain, the Ministry of Economy has been studying the introduction of blockchain in part of the process of buying and selling listed financial products, given that this technology is being tested in several projects of the financial sandbox, which began its first call for projects last February. All this, within the reform of the Securities Market Law, which seeks to adapt its rules to the European Directive on Markets and Financial Instruments, better known as Mifid II.

Brussels eurozone countries issue sovereign blockchain debt

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Government prepares new summer minimum wage hike: expert report will determine how it will rise to 60% of average wage by 2023

After extending to the end of last year the rise in the minimum interprofessional salary (SMI) scheduled for 2021, pending the end of the pandemic, and against the criteria of the Ministry of Labour, trade unions and the european commissioner of Jobs Nicolas Schmit, the Government is preparing to resume negotiations with the social partners to define the next increment of the minimum wage, with the intention to increase this summer, according to The Information.

Throughout this month, the Executive will receive the report of the committee of experts charged with defining how to raise the minimum wage to 60% of the average wage, as recommended by the European Social Charter, before the end of the legislature in 2023. This committee is composed of professors, university professors, researchers, ministerial advisers and trade union leaders, after the employers withdrew their 2 representatives because of their refusal to raise the SMI again.

The report will serve as a basis for restarting negotiations with unions and employers to agree how much the minimum wage will rise, which is frozen at 950 euros per month since its last increase in 2020, which was the first agreement of the social dialogue in this legislature, in which 9 pacts of this type are already accumulated. However, the rejection of the PSOE and the employers stopped a new rise at the beginning of 2021, although the situation has changed in spring.

Thus, at the end of 2020, the increase of the minimum wage to 1,000 euros per month was postponed due to the rejection of the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, and the ministers of the socialist wing of the coalition government, so the third vice president and minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, agreed to delay the process until the middle of this year. 6 months later, Díaz has managed to get the president, Pedro Sánchez, to commit to resume the rise of the SMI, according to the digital newspaper.

In this way, Labor will reopen negotiations with the social partners throughout June on the basis of the conclusions of the report of the committee of experts, which will establish a roadmap to increase the SMI to the minimum recommended by Brussels. However, the agreement could be complicated, given that the unions have their own proposals to raise the minimum wage and the employers are betting on negotiating a rise by 2022 and not for this year, according to the information.

However, the increase of the minimum wage in the second half of the year could go ahead without the support of the representatives of the employers, as this policy is the responsibility of the Government and it is not necessary to have an agreement of social dialogue to increase the minimum wage, although in the last 2 occasions it has been told with the consensus of employers and trade unions.

Specifically, the minimum wage was raised in 2019 by 22.3%, reaching 900 euros thanks to an agreement between the PP Government and social agents approved by the minority Executive of the PSOE after the motion of censure that caused the dismissal of former president Mariano Rajoy, and 5.5% in 2020, standing at its current level of 950 euros per month in 14 payments, which is 50% more than in 2010, when it was set at 633 euros per month.