Belgium plans to actively support the development of blockchain technologies in Europe, starting from January 2024, when the country will lead the EU Council. Belgium's Minister of Digital Technologies, Mathieu Michel, expressed his anticipation for this event and shared his future plans.

Michel focused on the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI), an initiative first proposed in 2018. His goal is to secure political support for the project during Belgium's six-month presidency. Already, eight EU member states have backed this idea.

In the coming months, Belgium will invite other EU countries to join the project or use it for their own purposes. Michel believes that the combination of artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies could be key to the EU's digital sovereignty, including control over data and cyberspace.

Michel also expressed the view that it's time for Europe to actively use digital innovations. In 2020, EU countries were informed about the possibility of joining the EBSI blockchain network by creating their own nodes. However, to ensure data unity, applications based on EBSI need to be compatible across different member states.

Michel emphasized the importance of privacy, transparency, and data control, asserting that blockchain can help achieve these goals. He also assured that a unified blockchain infrastructure would not be used for collecting data from citizens, but rather serve as a paradigm shift in information management.