Web3 is an opportunity and a requirement: France’s Macron

France’s cultural institutions need to develop an NFT policy and support Web3 innovation, the French president said in an interview.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is seeking to win this year’s election in a second round against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, believes that Web3 and the metaverse offer a huge opportunity for the promotion of culture and creative content.

Web3 presents a ‘requirement and opportunity’

In an interview with a local media house, Macron highlighted the potential benefits of the digital revolution, including the place of the metaverse in developing cultural policies.

“The metaverse has a huge potential in culture and leisure thanks to its applications in music, concerts, art exhibitions, etc. We cannot consider our cultural policy without this revolution,” he noted.

France, he added, has a unique opportunity to have its way of life – language, heritage, monuments, and cities – exist in the metaverse. Putting these in the metaverse will create a “digital historiography” of France’s collective history, he said.

According to him, it’s important that France’s main cultural institutions formulate an NFT policy that will help promote and protect players within the space.

Overall, Macron says Web3 “represents a requirement, as well as an opportunity not to be missed.” It’s an opportunity that France and Europe should seize if they want to become leaders in the future of the web.

On MiCA regulation

The French president’s remarks come a few weeks after the European Parliament voted on the restrictive Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) regulation. EU lawmakers adopted the regulation, introduced in 2020 and which seeks to cover crypto assets not captured under existing financial regulations, in March.

Commenting on the move, Macron noted that while France supports innovation, regulations are crucial as they bring about “uniformity of rules.” This, he noted, would offer Europe the foundation needed to “create a unified market.”

“I am in favor of making rapid progress on the MiCA regulation, based on the balanced approach promoted by the Council and inspired by the French framework,” he said. 

The French leader also reiterated his belief that the regulation would not hurt innovation.

“France will pay close attention that the text does not prevent innovation and remains as neutral as possible in terms of technology,” he told the French media outlet.

According to him, the success of Ledger and Sorare (two of France’s leading financial technology startups) is a clear signal of that intention.

In other remarks, Macron said he would want to see Europe take the lead in the digital era revolution. He would wish to see Europe not depend on US and China in this.