The European Commission unveiled plans on Tuesday to choke off financing of terrorist groups, with France pushing hard for a crackdown after last year's deadly attacks in Paris, AFP reports.
The Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation European Union, detailed the plans in the European Parliament in the French city of Strasbourg.
"We have to cut off the resources that terrorists use to carry out their heinous crimes," Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said in a statement. "By detecting and disrupting the financing of terrorist networks, we can reduce their ability to travel, to buy weapons and explosives, to plot attacks and to spread hate and fear online," he said.
The raft of measures include stepping up efforts to track money flowing through suspicious countries as well as building a better understanding of how terrorist groups use virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin.