BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission said on Tuesday it would seek to boost the international role of the euro and build European financial infrastructure so that the EU becomes more independent of outside financial centres and the dominance of the U.S. dollar.
The initiative, which is an announcement of a long-term strategic direction rather than a action plan, follows Britain’s EU departure, which took Europe’s biggest financial hub — the City of London — outside the EU’s jurisdiction.
“With the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, there is a strong need and opportunity to develop domestic market infrastructures,” the Commission said in a paper addressed to EU governments, the EU parliament and the European Central Bank.
The EU is also still smarting from the fallout in 2018 when U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions, leaving the Europeans unable to continue to trade with Iran under the terms of the accord.
EU-based securities depositories Clearstream and Euroclear were affected by the Iran decision and the EU-based SWIFT bank payment and messaging system had to disconnect Iranian banks.
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