France will block Facebook Inc.’s Libra cryptocurrency within its own borders and will also attempt to block it within European Union.

The announcement came Thursday from France’s Minister of the Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire (pictured) who told an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development conference on blockchain policy Thursday that “I want to be absolutely clear: in these conditions, we cannot authorize the development of Libra on European soil.”

Le Maire’s believed that Libra may substitute itself as a national currency, saying Libra “would be a global currency, held by a single player, which has more than two billion users around the world. The monetary sovereignty of states is under threat,” according to The Telegraph.

“I don’t see why we should dedicate so much effort to combating money laundering and terrorist financing for so many years to see a digital currency like Libra completely escape those regulatory efforts,” Le Maire added.

In response to the latest attack, Dante Disparte, head of policy and communications for the Libra Association, told Decrypt that “in the nearly three months since the intent to launch the Libra project was announced, we have become the world’s most scrutinized fintech effort. We welcome this scrutiny and have deliberately designed a long launch runway to have these conversations, educate stakeholders and incorporate their feedback in our design.”

Criticism of Libra has been widespread, though with few countries concerned about Facebook taking over their national currencies in popularity.

The European Commission launched a probe into Libra in August on competition grounds. The commission is concerned that Facebook may use its market dominance in social networking across its various properties such as Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram to give it an unfair market advantage.

Both sides of politics in the U.S. also expressed concerns about Facebook plans following the announcement of Libra in June, with President Donald Trump also joining in. Reflecting some of Le Maire’s concerns about money laundering and terrorist financing, one U.S. congressman even went as far as comparing Libra to the 9/11 attacks.

Photo: Claude Truong-Ngoc/Wikimedia Commons