Category: Uncategorized

1.10. The Digital Euro and the CBDC-Competition: US, Russia and China

Post author By eFin & Demokratie
Post date 12. September 2024

While those countries that have already introduced a central bank digital currency (CBDC) might carry little political weight, also the world’s major economies are discussing and testing their own CBDCs. This episode of Digitalgelddickicht sheds light on the special features of CBDC projects in the USA, Russia and China and asks about their geopolitical potential: What goals are Washington, Moscow and Beijing pursuing with their CBDCs? And are the Digital Dollar, Ruble or Yuan capable of changing the global financial landscape and currency hierarchy? How advanced are the respective CBDC plans and what lessons can the EU learn for the digital euro?

First, the episode examines the US debate regarding a Digital Dollar. How does the dominant role of the US in the international financial market influence the debate on the US CBDC? And how does the global hegemony of the dollar affect the CBDC ambitions of other G20 countries, especially in times of conflict? The digital ruble is part of a package of Russian measures designed to make the Russian payment system more resilient in the face of Western financial sanctions since the occupation of Crimea and, in particular, the war of aggression against Ukraine. As alternative financial infrastructures, CBDCs can offer greater autonomy and bypass established financial links. A look at China’s experiments with the digital yuan shows how it fits into the Chinese payment landscape. In view of China’s growing power, the question arises as to whether and how CBDC pioneers such as China could also gain influence and set standards outside their borders.

Digitalgelddickicht Season Digital Euro – Episode 10 (German only) | 12 September 2024

Guests

Dr. Jiaying Jiang is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Her research focuses on the policy and regulatory aspects of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, FinTech, blockchain technology, central bank digital currencies and cryptocurrencies. As a Hauser Global Fellow at New York University School of Law from 2020 to 2022, she co-directed a project on central bank digital currencies in partnership with the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School.

Roxana Ehlke Roxana Ehlke is a research associate at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Giessen a research associate and works in particular on topics of international political economy. She conducts research in the sub-project Financial Infrastructures and Geoeconomic Security in the SFB Dynamics of Security and focuses on infrastructural changes in the Russian financial system, especially under the influence of financial sanctions.

Further Information und Sources

Atlantic Council Central Bank Digital Currency Tracker: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/

CBDC Tracker: https://cbdctracker.org/

Text

Bansal,Rajesh / Singh, Somya: China’s Digital Yuan:An Alternative to the Dollar-Dominated Financial System, Working Paper, August 2021, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, August 2021.

CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, H.R.5403, 118th Congress (2023-2024).

Chorzempa Martin: Why Chinese Fintechs Have Failed to Reshuffle International Finance , Institut français des relations internationales (IFRI), 4 Marc 2024.

Chorzempa, Martin: Overuse of financial sanctions risks dollar’s role, East Asia Forum Quarterly, April – June 2023, pp. 17-19.

Duffie, Darrell / Economy, Elizabeth (Hrsg.): Digital Currencies. The US, China and the World at a Crossroads, Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2022.

Ehlke, Roxana: Alternative Financial Infrastructures in Russia, Preprint Version, forthcoming in: Carola Westermeier, Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn, Barbara Brandl (eds.): The Cambridge Companion to Financial Infrastructure .

Ehlke, Roxana / Salzer, Tim / Westermeier, Carola: Increasing State Capacity through Central Bank Digital Currencies. A Comparative Account of the Digital Yuan and Digital Ruble, Preprint Version, forthcoming in: Andreas Nölke, Johannes Petry (eds.), State, Capitalism and Finance in Emerging Markets: Between Subordination and Statecraft, Bristol University Press.

Hilpert, Hanns Günther: Chinas währungspolitische Offensive. Die Herausforderung der Internationalisierung und Digitalisierung des Renminbi, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, SWP Study 9, Berlin, March 2024.

Kühnlenz, Sophia / Orsi, Bianca / Kaltenbrunner, Annina: Central Bank Digital Currencies and the International Payment System: The Demise of the US Dollar, in: Research in International Business and Finance, Volume 64, Special Issue: The Impacts of Central Bank Digital Currencies, January 2023.

Kumar, Ananya / Lipsky, Josh: Don’t let the US become the only country to ban CBDCs, New Atlanticist, 21 May 2024.

Melches, Carolina / Peters, Michael: More Money, More Power: Big Techs in Finance, Finanzwende Recherche, Berlin, June 2024.

Salzer, Tim: A Short Infrastructural History of Currency Digitalization in the People’s Republic of China, 2000s-2020s, Preprint Version, forthcoming in: Carola Westermeier, Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn, Barbara Brandl (eds.): The Cambridge Global Companion to Financial Infrastructures

Reuters: Russia plans to use digital rouble in settlements with China, says lawmaker, 26.September 2022.

Audio

Penta Podcast “What’s at Stake”: Digital currencies and geopolitics with Ananya Kumar, 2 May 2024.

Trade Talks – Podcast: Episode 174 mit Martin Chorzempa: The Incredible Rise of Chinese Fintech, 18 Dezember 2022.

Wurzel, Steffen: Chinas Umgang mit Techkonzernen – Ende des Kuschelkurses, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Zeitfragen, 21 June 2021.

Video

Austrian Central Bank (ÖNB): Panel Discussion The Geopolitics of Central Bank Digital Currency, Youtube, European Forum Alpach 2024, 27 August 2024.

ABC News, Australia: China’s Digital Currency Revolution, Youtube, 6 July 2023.

Wall Street Journal: China Rolls Out Digital Yuan for Foreigners at the Olympics, Youtube, 17 February 2022.

CNBC: Could China Dethrone the US Dollar with a Digital Yuan?, Youtube, 25 July 2021.

Bloomberg Quicktakes: Trying China’s Digital Yuan e-CNY, Youtube, 19 February 2022.

Yahoo Finance: How China’s digital yuan will be used at Beijing’s Winter Olympics, Youtube, 31 January 2022.

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Infrastructures in Space for Digitality on Earth

Post author By ZEVEDI
Post date 13. August 2024

We use space for our lives on Earth. The expansion of digital infrastructures on the earth’s surface also means that more and more technical objects are being transported into space. Navigation without GPS is nowadays almost unimaginable. Telephone services and weather apps also use space technology – and the data streams in an internet of the future will probably no longer be routed mainly through long cables, but by means of constellations of thousands of satellites arranged around the globe. In the meantime, however, our planet is being orbited mainly by remnants of broken space technology, which are massively obstructing the increasingly dense traffic of important probes and satellites. It is an unintended consequence of human space travel that space debris actually jeopardises the future use of space. Added to this is the “weather” in space: digital infrastructures that ensure the security of systems on Earth are also increasingly affected by this. Who takes care of these problems? And how can we ensure that space flight can continue to supply the digital society with satellites?

Dr Holger Krag heads the ESA Space Safety Programme at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), which also deals with space debris and space weather. In this episode of “Digitalgespräch“, the expert describes the scene around our globe and describes how the challenges facing space travel have changed in recent decades, particularly as a result of the digital transformation. He names strategies for dealing with new safety risks and regulatory requirements, describes technical solutions and open research questions. Together with hosts Petra Gehring and Marlene Görger, Krag discusses whether the global political situation also poses a threat to space travel safety, what influence private players have on the development of space travel and what is at stake if the current problems cannot be solved.

Episode 54 of Digitalgespräch, feat. Holger Krag of the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), 13 August 2024

Further informationen:

Link to the website of the European Space Agency ESA with reports and background information on space debris: https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris
Link to the website of the European Space Agency ESA with reports and background information on space weather: https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_weather

all episodes of Digitalgespräch

The podcast is in German. At the moment there is no English version or transcript available.

Tags ESA, ESOC, solar storms, Space Debris, space law, Space Safety, Space Weather

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1.9. The Digital Euro and CBDCs around the globe: Bahamas and Nigeria

Post author By eFin & Demokratie
Post date 5. August 2024

Over 90% of all countries in the world are discussing the introduction of a CBDC. And almost half of them are actually working on it: over 80 countries are in a development, pilot or launch phase. However, in the media discussion of the digital euro, projects by other countries to issue digital central bank money (CBDC) are rarely discussed. Often little is known. Very few have actually introduced a CBDC so far: The Bahamas’ Sand Dollar was officially launched in October 2020 and the Nigerian eNaira in October 2021.

In the first of two episodes on non-European CBDC projects, the podcast Digitalgelddickicht focuses on these two. What prompted a small island state in the Caribbean and the most populous country in Africa to introduce a CBDC? What are their motivations and what are their experiences to date? What can CBDCs do in countries where people have limited access to banks and many do not have bank accounts? Are Sand Dollar and eNaira well received by citizens or retailers? What problems are there? What was discussed, negotiated and legislated before their introduction?

Digitalgelddickicht Season Digital Euro -Episode 9 | 5 August 2024 (German only)

Further information and sources

International Overview

■ Atlantic Council Central Bank Digital Currency Tracker: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/

■ CBDC Tracker: https://cbdctracker.org/

■ Bank for International Settlements (BIS) et al: Central bank digital currencies: foundational principles and core features, 2020.

■ MIT Digital Currency Initiative et al: CBDC – Expanding Financial Inclusion or Deepening the Divide. Exploring Design Choices that Could Make a Difference, 2023.

■ International Working Group on Data Protection in Technology (Berlin Group): Working Paper on Central Bank Digital Currency – CBDC, 13 June 2024.

Bahamas / Sand Dollar

Video

■ Tagesschau: Die Bahamas nach Hurrikan Dorian (Youtube), 13 September 2019, (accessed 11 July 2024).

■ International Monetary Fund: The Bahamas: The World’s First Digital Currency, 1 March 2021.

■ Rolle, John (Governor, Central Bank of The Bahamas): Remarks about the Sand Dollar and the Digital Euro, Conference Towards a legislative framework for the digital Euro, 7 November 2022, Brussels, ca. 1pm.

■ Porter, Shaqueno (Central Bank of The Bahamas): An Update on the Sand Dollar (Youtube), Digital Euro Association Conference (DEC24), Frankfurt/Main, 29 February 2024.

Audio

Digital Euro Podcast, Episode 52: Sand Dollar Chief Architect Shares Insights into Bahama’s CBDC, Interview with U-Zyn Chua, August 2023.

Text

■ Central Bank of The Bahamas: Legal Framework -Online Documentation.

■ Central Bank of The Bahamas: Central Bank of The Bahamas Act, 2020.

■ Central Bank of The Bahamas: Bahamian Dollar Digital Currency Regulations, 2021.

■ Hall, Ian: CBDC-linked Prepaid Card Debuts as Bahamas Central Bank Consults on Regulation, Global Government Fintech, 23 February 2021.

■ Barathan, Vipin: Operationalizing the First CBDC – After Ist First Year Island Pay CEO Richard Douglas Shares his Experience, Forbes, 28 November 2021, Forbes.

■ Hall, Ian: Bahamas Central Bank shares CBDC Lessons from Sand Dollars‘ First Two Years, Global Government Fintech, 9. November 2022.

■ Haans, Jeroen / van der Linden, Martin Jeroen et al: Lessons from the first implemented CBDC: the Sand Dollar, Digital Euro Association Blog, 23 June 2023.

■ Branch, Sharon, Ward, Linsey and Wright, Allan: The Evolution of SandDollar, in: Intereconomics. Review of European Economic Policy,Vol. 58 (2023), No. 4, pp. 178 – 184.

■ Rees, Nicholas: Promoting Financial Inclusion in the Carribean. A Broken ATM in the Bahamas Reveals the Need for Digital Banking Solutions Across the Region, NextBillion, 21 May 2024.

■ Knobloch, Andreas: Bahamas will Banken zur Nutzung von digitalem Zentralbankgeld verpflichten, Heise online, 1 July 2024.

Nigeria / eNaira

Video

■ Al Jazeera English: Nigeria becomes first African nation to roll out digital currency (Youtube), 26 October 2021.

■ Fosudo, Fisayo: The problems with eNaira ( Youtube), 15 December 2021.

■ Coindesk: Nigeria Changing its eNaira Model to Promote Use of its CBDC (Youtube), 27 July 2023.

■ Digivation Network TV: e-Naira Policy – Are Nigerians using the E-Naira Wallet (Youtube), 20 February 2024.

■ Fosudo, Fisayo: Talking Tech with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken (Youtube), 30 January 2024.

Audio

■ Chainalysis‘ Public Key Podcast, Episode 37: Powering the Digital Asset Transformation in Nigeria and Beyond, Interview with Michael Adeyeri (CEO, Busha) und Moyo Sodipo (CPO, Busha), 4 January 2023.

Text

■ Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung: Politische Situation. Defizite bei Demokratie und Rechtsstaatlichkeit, accessed 4 August 2024.

■ Idris, Abubakar: Africa’s First e-Currency is off to a Shaky Start, Rest of World, 19 November 2021.

■ Ree, Jookyung: Nigeria’s eNaira – One year after, International Monetary Fund, 2022.

■ Lawal, Temitoyo: Nigeria’s Digital Currency Can’t Compete with Crypto, Rest of World, 17 May 2023.

■ Ozili, Peterson: Redesigning the eNaira Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for Payments and Macroeconomic effectiveness, MPRA Paper No. 118807, 2023.

Chainalysis: Cryptocurrency Penetrates Key Markets in Sub-Saharan Africa as an Inflation Mitigation and Trading Vehicle, Chainalysis Blog, 19 September 2023.

Dzirutwe, Macdonald: Nigeria plans additional rules to combat illegal trading in digital assets, Reuters, 7 May 2024.

Akintaro, Samson: Crypto P2P – CBN’s Policies Opened Doors for Manipulators, Nairametrics, 9 May 2024.

Omatubora, Adekemi: Same Naira, More Possibilities! Assessing the Legal Status of the eNaira and Its Potential for Privacy and Inclusion, Journal of African Law, Vol. 68, No. 2, June 2024, pp. 245-262.

Digital Euro

Deutsche Bundesbank: Stand der Dinge – Digitaler Euro accessed 4 august, 2024.

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Maximilian Henning

Post author By eFin & Demokratie
Post date 24. June 2024

Mercator-Journalist in Residence, June / July 2024

Maximilian Henning is a freelance EU correspondent on digital policy.

He writes for German and European media on digital regulation, infrastructure and surveillance. He regularly reports for netzpolitik.org and Tagesspiegel Background. He has lived in Brussels since 2023 and observes developments in the European Union up close, whether in the Parliament, the Council or the Commission.

Project

At ZEVEDI, Maximilian focuses on the digital euro. In a series of articles, he wants to analyse who wants what from this major project. What is the EU planning, what is the ECB planning? What demands are banks or payment service providers putting forward, what are the positions of the various EU member states on the digital euro? Just as the project itself has largely flown under the radar so far, little is known about the actual interests different players have.

The Residency – Output

■ Wer alles weiß, wenn du online bezahlst, netzpolitik.org, 2 July 2024 (German only).

■ Digitaler Euro: Was soll mir das bringen? , netzpolitik.org, 3 July 2024 (German only).

■ EU Council discusses Digital Euro – And how much privacy should it be?, netzpolitik.org, 4 July 2024.

■ Standstill in EU Parliament – How Conservatives are stalling the Digital Euro, netzpolitik.org, 17 July 2024.

Further information on the programme and application procedure can be found on the German language website».

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Follow the [New] Money

Post author By eFin & Demokratie
Post date 6. May 2024

On the Trail of Crypto, Cards, Coins and Cash

A Film by Sophia Igel and Philipp Scholtysik

On September 16, 2023, a Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge under the title Follow the Money – Of Analogue Values, Digital Currencies and the Quantification of the World was staged in Frankfurt/Main. This was a project by the Mobile Academy Berlin, produced by Künstler:innenhaus Mousonturm in cooperation with ZEVEDI. In 1:1 conversations with visitors – and audible via event radio – around 90 experts followed the traces of money on a large scale, on a small scale and in their own lives. All information about the film is also available here as a booklet (German only).

The video documents excerpts from 8 of these 192 conversations, in which perspectives on digital payment are discussed: The conversations revolve around the social significance of cash and the restrictions on digital payments. Other discuss the digital euro, a central bank currency that is supposed to function digitally but in a similar way to cash. Crypto assets such as Bitcoin and technologies such as blockchain play a roleas well. All of it sheds light onto the “digital money jungle” in which we find ourselves as individuals, but also as a society. For an overview of what else is happening, see the eFin-Blogpost Ein Markt des nützlichen Wissens und Nicht-Wissens (German only).

The experts in order of their appearance and with selected contributions to the topic:

Brett Scott is a former broker and now a publicist and cash activist. He is the author of the newsletter Altered States of Monetary Consciousness and the book Cloudmoney – Cash, Card or Crypto: Why the War on Cash Endangers Our Freedom (2022).

Prof. Dr. Barbara Brandl is an economic sociologist at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. In an eFin-Blogpost, she describes what the digitization of money has to do with social inequality ( German only, see the long version in English here).

Dr. Carola Westermeier is a social scientist and ZEVEDI Young Investigator at TU Darmstadt from April to December 2024. At re:publica 23, she gave a video-recorded keynote on the topic of Do we need the digital euro or (how) can money be democratic? (German only). Together with Marek Jessen, in an article in November 2023 she argued for the development of a digital euro as a public good (German only).

Jana Ringwald is a senior public prosecutor at the Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT) of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Frankfurt/Main. The video interviews by artist Rainer Lind (German only) provide an insight into her work.

Alexandra Keiner is a sociologist and researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin. In an interview entitled Of Frozen Accounts and Unequal Conditions in International Payment Transactions (German only), she talks about her research on “payment bans on the internet” and about her experience and conversations during the Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge.

Claus George is Head of Digitalization and Innovation at DZ Bank. His lecture Digital payments – yesterday, today, tomorrow (German only), which he gave in April 2022 as part of the series Understanding Crypto! at TU Darmstadt, is available as a video recording.

Dr. Gerald Nestler is an artist and author who deals with the topic of finance, among other things. For his projects, texts and lectures see here.

Jürgen Geuter is known as a critic of crypto assets, among other things. For current blog posts and a selection of publications and presentations, see his online presence here.

Suggested citation:

Igel, Sophia/Scholtysik, Philipp: Follow the [New] Money. Auf den Spuren von Krypto, Karten, Coins und Cash. Darmstadt: Zentrum verantwortungsbewusste Digitalisierung, 2024, Video 16:42 Minuten, online: https://zevedi.de/film-follow-the-new-money/.

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Money : Technology : Democracy

Post author By eFin & Demokratie
Post date 6. May 2024

eFin & Democracy invites an interdisciplinary panel of experts twice a year. The meetings offer an independent place to reflect on issues regarding the sociopolitical aspects of digital change in the financial sector. Its aim is a well-informed and critical exchange that brings together not only academic, but also relevant positions from financial market-related, cultural and journalistic practice. Civic engagement, digital political democratization, orientation towards the common good and a sense of responsibility form the horizon in which the considerations and activities of “Money – Technology – Democracy” are located.

The panel currently consists of the following members:

Dr. Martin Diehl (Analyst for financial market infrastructures at the Deutsche Bundesbank)
Prof. Dr. Petra Gehring (Professor of Philosophy at TU Darmstadt, Scientific Director of ZEVEDI (Centre for Responsible Digitality) and Head of the “eFin & Democracy” discourse project)
Johannes Kuhn (journalist in the Berlin studio of Deutschlandfunk with a focus on digitalization policy)
Prof. Dr. Aaron Sahr (Research Group Monetary Sovereignty at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research and Visiting Professor at the Institute for Sociology and Cultural Organization at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg)
Prof. Dr. Daniel Tyradellis (Humboldt Forum Endowed Professorship for the Theory and Practice of Interdisciplinary Curating, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media; Vice Director of the Hermann von Helmholtz Centre for Cultural Technology at HU Berlin)

Following a constituent meeting on March 14/15, 2023 at the Forum Humanwissenschaften, Bad Homburg, the group met for discussions on October 5/6, 2023 at the Darmstadt Wasserturm (photo). On April 12, 2024, it met at the Helmholtz Center for Cultural Technology at the HU Berlin.

It was decided to focus first on the digital euro. With the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the eurozone currently in preparation, technological issues relating to the specific design of the new money converge with the question of how aspects of “democracy” are affected. The panel of experts has therefore decided to first look at the digital euro, also with regard to a (public) infrastructure for digital payment transactions and the associated transparency and comprehensibility of the introduction process for citizens, which is absolutely essential. The panel will develop ideas for relevant features of the digital euro. It will also discuss ways of communicatively supporting the political-administrative process beyond conventional communication formats.

More about the Project eFin & Democracy

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Citizen Lectures

Post author By eFin & Demokratie
Post date 6. May 2024

In the Citizen Lectures, scientists and experts are asked to provide insights into their specialist field, impart basic knowledge and make suggestions for a broader discussion. Their audience includes TU Darmstadt students as well as a broader interested public. All lectures are also available online as videos. The following lecture series have been held so far:

Finance, State, Digitization & Democracy

Law & Economics , Summer Term 2024

More about the event
Videos of all Lectures

“Wert/Value/Valeur” – The Clash between Morality and Price

Philosophy, Winter Term 2023/24

More about the event
Videos of all Lectures (German only)

Understanding Crypto!

Philosophy, Summer Term 2022

More about the event
Videos of all Lectures (German only)

More about the Project eFin & Democracy

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1.8. The Digital Euro and the European Central Bank

Post author By eFin & Demokratie
Post date 29. April 2024

When the digital euro is introduced, it will be provided by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the central banks of the Eurosystem. However, the exact design of this digital currency is still the subject of intense discussion and is expected to take several years. However, the ECB has been investigating such a central bank digital currency (CBDC), since at least 2020. An initial preparatory phase was launched last fall and certain decisions, even if not final, have been made.

In this context, some critics accuse the ECB of being too accommodating to the interests of commercial banks. At the same time, it is precisely these commercial banks that are warning the loudest and claiming that a digital euro would intervene too much in the payments market and would jeopardize their business model. This episode of Digitalgelddickicht therefore takes a look at the mandate and tasks of the ECB and explains why and how it is already working on the digital euro. In an interview with Jürgen Schaaf, an Advisor to the Senior Management of Market Infrastructure and Payments at the European Central Bank, we want to find out how the ECB is working with EU legislation, the financial industry and civil society on the digital euro project, to what extent it is taking their criticism into account and what it is doing to counter it.

Digitalgelddickicht Season Digital Euro – Folge 8 (German only) | 29. April 2024

Guests

Jürgen Schaaf has been Advisor to the Senior Management of Market Infrastructure and Payments at the European Central Bank since November 2019. Before that, he was Counsellor to the Executive Board of the ECB and Secretary of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) Project Team. Before he joined the ECB, he was Personal Adviser to the Governor of Banque Centrale du Luxembourg. In previous occupations he worked at Börsen-Zeitung and as Senior Economist at Deutsche Bank. He studied economics in Marburg and Canterbury and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Philipps-Universität Marburg.

Cornelia Manger-Nestler is Professor of German and International Business Law at HWTK Leipzig, specializing in monetary law. She previously studied and worked at TU Dresden and TU Chemnitz, where she also completed her doctorate on the role of the Deutsche Bundesbank in the European System of Central Banks. Furthermore, she is currently supervising a research project on legal issues with regards to the digital euro.

Markus Ferber is an engineer, has been a member of the CSU Schwaben‘s Executive Board since 1990 and its Chairman from 2005 to 2023. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 1994. He is a member of the EPP Group, the European People’s Party, and has also been a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs since 2009. Between 2014 and 2018, he served as its Vice-Chairman and since then as the EPP Group’s spokesperson on the committee. He has also been Chairman of the CSU-affiliated Hanns Seidel Foundation since 2020.

Henrike Hahn is a political scientist and has worked as a management consultant and research assistant in the Bavarian state parliament and the Bundestag. She has been an active member of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Bayern since 2012, including as spokesperson for its working group on economics and finance and a member of the board. In 2019, she became a member of the European Parliament. There she is a full member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and a substitute member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. She is the lead negotiator and shadow rapporteur on the digital euro for her group, the Greens/EFA.

Joachim Schuster holds a doctorate in political science and worked in research, science management and political consulting until 2006. He was a member of the Bremen Parliament for the SPD since 1999 and was Bremen’s State Councillor for Labor, Youth and Social Affairs and later Health and Science from 2006 to 2012. He became a Member of the European Parliament in 2014. He is a member of the S&D Group and has been a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs since 2019. On the Executive Committee of the German Social Democrats, he is responsible for cooperation with the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag.

Further Information

Panetta, Fabio: Letter to several MEPs on the request to postpone the decision on the digital euro, 6 October 2023.

Fanta, Alexander / Bollen, Thomas: European banks are scared oft the digital euro. Here’s how their secret lobyying could torpedo it, Follow the Money, 29 February 2024.

Video Recording of the Public Hearing regarding the Digital Euro by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) in the EU Parliament with Piero Cipollone, Member oft he ECB’s Executive Board, 14 February 2024 (Afternoon Meeting).

Recommendation for comprehensive information regarding the Digital Euro provided by the ECB: FAQ on a digital Euro, ECB Website (29 April 2024).

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Finance, State, Digitization & Democracy

Post author By eFin & Demokratie
Post date 9. April 2024

Interdisciplinary Citizen Lecture
Every Monday, 18:00 CET, starting from 22 April 2024

Technische Universität Darmstadt, Old Main Building, Hochschulstr. 1, Lecture Hall 223

An Event of Faculty 01 (Law and Economics) in Cooperation with the Discourse Project Democratic Issues of the Digitalized Financial Sector at the Centre Responsible Digitality (ZEVEDI)

The relationship between the financial sector on the one hand and states, especially democracies, on the other is (re)constructed in different ways. Ideas about the the capital markets’ efficiency free them from demands for a “fair” distribution of financial resources. The “taming of the financial markets”, on the other hand, is a demand that was advocated by the movement critical of globalization in the 1990s. What both views have in common, however, is the implicit assumption that the market and the state are fundamentally separate. However, the dichotomy of market and state fails to recognize the entanglement of states and the financial world.

The genesis of modern statehood has led to a significant increase in the financial requirements of the public sector, which is only partially covered by taxes and fees. The state is therefore increasingly asking for loans or issuing bonds on the capital markets. It has also successively established central banks that act as lenders of last resort. It is therefore not only a demander, but also a major player on the capital markets. And it also shapes their framework conditions.

The expansion of the financial sector is linked both to the industrial revolution and the implementation of capitalist production methods as well as to increasing state activity. However, in order to reduce information asymmetries, protect the weak, strengthen the European single market or avoid further financial crises, the state often sets limits or imposes rules on financial intermediaries. Even more fundamentally, it can be stated that there is not a single financial product without a legal basis. No share, no bond, no loan and no derivative is born without legal norms. The question is therefore not one of market or state, but of the connections and ambivalences of the market-state relationship.

In a democracy – especially one in which digital technologies shape everyday life – the question of the role of the financial sector becomes even more pressing, as it is considered to be in need of regulation on the one hand and difficult to regulate on the other. In addition, the increased demand for capital can also lead to a certain dependence of the state on capital markets and thus make it more difficult to enforce democratic demands. The recent debate has also (re)raised the relationship between capital markets and distribution issues. In particular, this raises the question of how the conflicting goals of maximizing prosperity on the one hand and equitable distribution of economic goods on the other can be resolved. The third force in this area of conflict is the digital transformation, which is not just a “technical” issue. Under digital conditions, both capital markets and democracies are now fundamentally confronted with new requirements for communication, value creation and also the “traditional” understanding of currencies and payment systems.

The lecture series explores the ambivalent relationship between (digital) capital markets and (digital) democracy as well as the effects that evolving capital markets have on distribution issues. It reconstructs the history of capital markets and states as controversial as they were in earlier times and as they are today, on the one hand from the perspective of science, on the other hand it is also about a representation of facts and debates that is accessible to citizens. The lecture provides ways how to describe the issues at hand, raises the question of the objectives and means by which (digital) capital markets are (or should be) regulated and deals with the issues of prosperity and distributive justice in a digital world.

Programme

22.04.

Christoph Becker (Professor für Finanzmathematik und Stochastik, Darmstädter Institut für Statistik und Operations Research (DISO), h_da)

Das Finanzsystem und die Selbstbestimmung des Menschen

29.4.

Andreas Nastansky (Professor für Quantitative Methoden und Mathematik, HWR Berlin)

Risikoverbund zwischen Banken und Staaten im Euroraum

06.05.

Carola Westermeier (Akademische Rätin am Institut für Soziologie, Universität Gießen / aktuell ZEVEDI Young Investigator)

Digitales Geld als öffentliches Gut? Der digitale Euro als Finanz- und Sicherheitsinfrastruktur

13.05.

Jenny Preunkert (Professorin für Makrosoziologie, Universität Kassel)

Die Europäische Union, ihre Mitgliedsstaaten und die Gläubiger: Machtfigurationen auf den europäischen Kapitalmärkten

27.05.

Joseph Vogl (em. Professor für Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft/Medien, HU Berlin)

Privatisierung des Geldes

03.06.

Andreas Dombret (Vorstand der Deutschen Bundesbank, a.D., Honararprofessor, EBS, Wiesbaden)

Die 3 I’s – Invasion, Inflation & Interest Rates

10.06.

Lars P. Feld (Professor für Wirtschaftspolitik, Universität Freiburg, Persönlicher Berater des Bundesfinanzministers)

Ist die Schuldenbremse an allem schuld? Für und Wider ihrer Reform

Link for the live stream

17.06.

Jiajia Liu (PostDoc Researcher, International History and Politics, Universität Genf)

Financial Institutions in Shanghai (1840s-1910s)

24.06.

Marc Buggeln (Professor für regionale Zeitgeschichte und PublicHistory & Direktor der Forschungsstelle für regionale Zeitgeschichte und Public History, Universität Flensburg)

Keine Demokratie ohne Steuern? Wandel der Gouvernementalität und soziale Gleichheit vom 18. Jahrhundert bis heute

01.07.

Andreas Fisahn (Professor für öffentliches Recht, Umwelt-und Technikrecht, Rechtstherie, Universität Bielefeld)

Demokratische Selbstbestimmung und Finanzmärkte

08.07.

Thorsten Pötzsch (Exekutivdirekor Geschäftsbereich Wertpapieraufsicht, Bundesanstalt für
Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin))

Kapitalmarkt heute und morgen

15.07.

Jan Pieter Krahnen (em. Professor für Kreditwirtschaft und Finanzierung & Gründungsdirektor des Leibniz-Instituts für Finanzmarktforschung SAFE, Frankfurt)

Die unvollendete Bankenunion: Europa im Spannungsfeld von Marktintegration und nationaler Souveränität

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1.7. The Digital Euro – In the Engine Room of the European Union

Post author By eFin & Demokratie
Post date 5. April 2024

This episode of Digitalgelddickicht asks – also with the upcoming European elections in mind: How and when exactly will final decisions on the digital Euro be made in Brussels? What steps are still to be taken? Who has which opportunities to influence the outcome or act strategically? And what are the pitfalls of the EU process? What are the current positions in European Parliament and what is the significance of the European elections? What role do committees and the so-called rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs play? We will address these questions in our conversations with EU parliamentarians.

It is, after all, the EU institutions which will decide whether such a central bank digital currency (CBDC) will be introduced at all. And if so, Brussels will define the framework within which a digital euro must be developed. That will take time still. We are in the early stages of the legislative process and the home stretch is not in sight for a long time. But that also means that a lot can still happen. Any meaningful discussion on the digital euro is currently still based on the European Commission’s Draft Proposal from June 2023. But the next step is for the European Parliament and the European Council to find a position each which is able to secure a majority’s support. This episode therefore takes a closer look at the most accessible of the EU’s engine rooms: the European Parliament and its committees

Season 1 Digital Euro -Episode 7 | 5 April 2024 (German only)

Guests

Damian Boeselager studied economics and philosophy, worked as a management consultant and co-founded Volt as a pan-European party together with two like-minded co-founders from Italy and France in 2017. As the lead candidate of Volt‘s German chapter, he was elected to the European Parliament in 2019 as the only Volt MEP at the time. He is a member of the Greens/EFA group and a member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs.

Patrick Breyer is a lawyer, founding member and active politician of the Piratenpartei Germany since 2012. From 2012 to 2017, he was a member of the state parliament in Schleswig-Holstein and from 2012 to 2013 and from 2016 to 2017 he was also the leader of its Pirate Party parliamentary group. As the German Pirates’ lead candidate for the 2019 European elections, he has since been the only German member of his party in the European Parliament. He is a member of the Group of the Greens/EFA and a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.

Further Information

European Commission: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and European Council on the Establishment of a Digital Euro», 28 June 2023.

European Parliament Committee on Economy and Monetary Affairs (ECON): Draft Report on the EU Commission’s Proposal on the Establishment of a Digital Euro, 9 February 2024.

Recording of the European Parliament Committee on Economy and Monetary Affairs (ECON)’s morning Session, 14 February 2024.

European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE): Opinion regarding the EU Commission’s Proposal on the Establishment of a Digital Euro , 20 February 2024.

European Parliament Committee on Economy and Monetary Affairs (ECON): Amendments 120-367 regarding the EU Commission’s Proposal on the Establishment of a Digital Euro, 21 February 2024.

European Parliament Committee on Economy and Monetary Affairs (ECON): Amendments 368 – 725 regarding the EU Commission’s Proposal on the Establishment of a Digital Euro, 21 February 2024.

ZEVEDI-Podcast Digitalgespräch, Episode 48 with Dominik Wendt: The EU’s AI Act: How it came about and how it regulates AI, 5 March 2024.

For the European election programs of the different parties and their positions on the digital euro, please consult the pages of the parties in question.

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