The European Parliament has issued a press release following a hearing by its economic committee on virtual currencies.

The press release notes that most of the experts at the hearing were cautious about expanding EU legislation on virtual currencies. Commission representative Salles said: “One of the big challenges is not how fast and far to regulate, but how to correctly monitor this fast evolving technology.” He told MEPs that the Commission was considering whether there was a need to regulate virtual currencies as part of the response to last November’s terrorist attacks in Paris.

One attendee at the hearing stated that there “was no basis for a generic regulation of Bitcoin” whilst another attendee added that “industry is supportive of financial crime regulation.”

Sian Jones, co-founder of the European Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology forum, told MEPs: “If you’re minded to propose legislative action, [I recommend] to limit such action to anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing.”

The European Parliament is currently working on a report on virtual currencies, which its economic committee is expected to vote on in April.  After this all MEPs will be asked to vote on the report during a plenary session which is expected to be held in May. The adopted report will then be sent to the European Commission for consideration.

View Virtual currencies: what are the risks and benefits? 26 January 2016