From ef684145b8e83fd23216b3d15942e31e5740d0fd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Christian Grothoff <christian@grothoff.org>
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2021 16:37:12 +0100
Subject: draft

---
 news/2021-02.html.j2 | 53 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 53 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 news/2021-02.html.j2

(limited to 'news')

diff --git a/news/2021-02.html.j2 b/news/2021-02.html.j2
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..189adf35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/2021-02.html.j2
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+{% extends "common/news.j2" %}
+{% block body_content %}
+<h1>2021-2: Helping the European Commission</h1>
+<p>
+In December 2020 the European Parliament asked the European Commission
+about the suitability of GNU Taler to establish a digital Euro in a
+<a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2020-006895_EN.html">small inquiry</a>.
+In the <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2020-006895-ASW_EN.html">official answer</a>,
+the commission mostly asserts that it is unable &quot;to assess the functioning of the GNU Taler payment system&quot;,
+and points to a maximum transaction limit of 150 EUR, without really answering
+the questions raised by the inquiry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To assist the European Union with regards to the inquiry, we point
+out that the operation of GNU Taler is completely and transparently
+made public at <a href="https://taler.net/">https://taler.net/</a>,
+so if the European Commission is, like anyone else, in position to assess the
+functioning of the GNU Taler payment system. We recently also described
+details of how the system would function for an E-Euro in a
+<a href="https://www.snb.ch/en/mmr/papers/id/working_paper_2021_03">working paper
+with the Swiss National Bank</a>.  Based on our publicly available documentation,
+Prof. Birchler, a previous member of the directorate of the Swiss National Bank,
+<a href="https://www.batz.ch/2021/03/digitales-bargeld-swiss-made/">publicly
+commented</a> that our approach is the best published proposal for digital cash.
+</p>
+
+<p> With respect to EU policy objectives, we would like to point out that the
+150 EUR limit postulated by the European Commission for private payments is
+very low, and in our view incompatible with the data protection objectives of
+the European Union. We want to stress that with GNU Taler, only the citizen
+making the payment can remain anonymous. Thus, Taler is not suitable for money
+laundering or illegal business activities as receivers of payments are easily
+identified.  A recent <a
+href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu//press/pr/date/2021/html/ecb.pr210113~ec9929f446.en.html">broad
+consultation</a> by the European Central Bank showed that the European
+population demands privacy compareable to physical cash when it comes to the
+Digital Euro.  With cash, the transaction limit is at 10,000 EUR. Thus, were
+the 150 EUR limit apply truly to all forms of privacy-friendly electronic
+cash, this would be a key point where the European Union should provide for more
+citizen-friendly regulation, especially for technical solutions that include
+security features that adequately minimize the risk of citizens suffering
+financial losses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Finally, we would like to stress that the GNU Taler project is open to
+a cooperation with the European Central Bank, and is happy to answer
+questions from specialists of the European Parliament or the European
+Commission.
+</p>
+
+{% endblock body_content %}
-- 
cgit v1.2.3