French finance minister: Libra should not be developed in EU

The European Union should not allow Facebook to develop its digital currency project, known as Libra, on "European territory" because it threatens the monetary sovereignty of member states, France's finance minister Bruno Le Maire said Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of a meeting of the 19 eurozone finance ministers, Bruno Le Maire said alternative payment systems pose many dangers because they could also be used for money laundering or "terrorism funding."
"I just want to recall some principles. If you want to have a sovereign currency, it's up to the states. And only to the states, to be responsible for a sovereign currency. It should not be the role of a private company to try to get a sovereign currency like a sovereign state."
Though it said Libra has "the potential to become a systemically important payment system," it stressed that "such a system would need to meet the highest standards of resilience and be subject to appropriate supervisory oversight, consistent with the principles set out above."