ER Editor: On the topic of public consultation within the EU, here’s a typical (recent) story of how public opinion was ignored in relation to renewing the Covid digital pass. See
EU Renews Digital COVID Pass Despite 99% Negative Public Feedback
********
Vast European Opposition To Central Bank Digital Currency
TECHNOCRACY NEWS
They asked for public comment. The overwhelming majority said to stuff it. In defiance of public sentiment, the response is “the European Commission will need to step up their efforts to better explain to its population how a digital euro works, to demystify some beliefs, and perhaps to show the benefits of a digital euro.” ⁃ TN Editor
********
PYMNTS
The European Commission will close a public consultation on the digital euro on Tuesday (June 14), after feedback from EU citizens indicated that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) may not be as welcomed as regulators had hoped for.
A day before closing the consultation, regulators received 16,299 responses, with 98% from EU citizens, and just 0.3% from companies or 0.03% from businesses associations. The overwhelming majority of comments from EU citizens opposed the adoption of a digital euro. Many respondents argued that with a CBDC, citizens would lose privacy in their transactions and the government would have more control over their finances and eventually over their lives.
Other respondents questioned the need for additional digital money when private companies and banks are already offering digital alternatives. The risk of “printing” digital money and causing more inflation was also mentioned in some responses.
Some of the few associations that replied to the consultation showed a more positive view of the project but requested more information to have a better understanding of the CBDC.
The consultation offered valuable information, but the data should still be analyzed with caution. While the majority of respondents have a negative view of the digital euro, there were only 16,266 respondents, out of 450 million citizens in the European Union. Additionally, many of the respondents were “anonymous,” and some of the responses contained almost identical sentences, which could indicate that not all the responses came from genuine European (or non-European) citizens.
But one thing is clear: the European Commission will need to step up their efforts to better explain to its population how a digital euro works, to demystify some beliefs, and perhaps to show the benefits of a digital euro.
While this consultation is not binding for the commission — and, as the regulatory body said, does not prejudge its final decision — it won’t be able to ignore the number of submissions and general public sentiment toward the project. (ER: We beg to disagree – that’s PRECISELY what happened over the EU decision to renew the digital Covid pass. And other important decisions the EU clique wishes to take.)
The Core of the Consultation
The commission launched a public consultation on April 5 to gather information about the digital currency and to better understand how a CBDC would interact with other methods of payment.
There is an additional legal reason to conduct this consultation. For a digital euro to be used as the single currency alongside euro banknotes and coins, new regulation based on Article 133 of the European Treaty would be required, and the European Commission is the only institution that can propose this legislation. The commission’s finance chief, Mairead McGuinness, said in February that legislation for a digital euro would be proposed in 2023.
The design of the consultation doesn’t seek expert input on technical topics. Instead, it wants to get the pulse of society regarding the design of CBDCs to make informed decisions on some of the biggest policy questions. For instance, most of the questions asked the respondent to rate how important a certain CBDC element is to them (e.g., as a payment in stores, low fees, real-time settlement, etc.).
While some of the questions tried to answer broad policy questions, like how important it is for a digital euro to “provide access to public money for everyone,” “to get monetary sovereignty” or “develop the EU’s digital economy innovation,” many questions addressed the creation of pan-European payment solutions.
************
Source
••••
The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)
••••
Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.
••••
Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.
••••
Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Exactly, which is why people probably responded anonymously.
“The design of the consultation doesn’t seek expert input on technical topics. Instead, it wants to get the pulse of society regarding the design of CBDCs to make informed decisions”
They collect the IDs of the citizens they need to destroy.