The European Parliament adopted the Resolution of 3 October 2018 on distributed ledger technologies (“DLT”) and blockchains: building trust with disintermediation (2017/2772(RSP)), which encourages the use of DLT tools to foster 4.0 industry.
Through a series of recommendations, the Resolution aims to improve transparency and transaction cost efficiency by covering key sectors of the economy, such as energy, transport, supply chains, education and finance.
Among the policies for boosting the DLTs, the European Parliament calls to promote the competitive position of the European Union in the field of DLT, to develop an innovation-friendly regulatory approach and to remove existing barriers to implement blockchains.
The legal issues raised by the resolution address the potential of smart contracts, their enforceability, digital cryptographic signature and risks relating to jurisdiction. Regarding intellectual property, DLTs can facilitate copyright and patent protection. Other legal implications address GDPR compliance, ‘the right to be forgotten’ and data privacy.
The Resolution will be forwarded to the European Commission and Council for consideration.
