The European Commission's outgoing finance chief has called for reviving European initiatives to introduce a digital tax for the region if attempts to find a global solution fail.

Pierre Moscovici, the commissioner for economic and financial affairs, said in a written interview with Kyodo News that the EU's proposal, although rejected by some members in March, led to "unprecedented" progress at the international level.

While a common approach to the issue could be found in 2020, the EU should play a central role in the process, said the commissioner of the EU's executive body whose new members will take office on Dec. 1 for a five-year term.

"If we do not succeed in finding a global solution, the European Commission will relaunch its own initiatives to make it possible to tax digital activities at their fair value, because the current situation is no longer tolerated by European citizens," the former French finance minister wrote.

The earlier proposal to apply a 3 percent tax rate to digital advertising, e-commerce and other digital activities was rejected by some member states including Ireland which granted reduced taxes for Apple Inc.'s operations.

Moscovici said the European efforts to have globally operating digital firms including Google LLC, Apple, Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. collectively known as GAFA to pay their fair share of taxes still helped encourage member states to "act alone and made digital taxation a priority of international discussions at the G-20 framework."

Regarding cryptocurrencies, Moscovici said innovations in the financial sector present opportunities for Europe but that developments need to be closely monitored in the area of such assets including Facebook's planned digital currency Libra.

"These technologies, particularly cryptocurrencies, raise many challenges in terms of monetary sovereignty," he wrote, adding there is a need for the new commission members to "develop a European approach" to digital assets.

As for member states' fiscal health, the approach to flexibly apply the EU's fiscal rules has been successful and none of the 28 countries are subject to the Excessive Debt Procedure, but such a method has "reached the limit" due to the global economic slowdown, he said.

"What must be avoided is adding complexity to already very complex rules," he said. "I advocate for a systemic reform involving the creation of a genuine eurozone budget, a European safe asset and the revision of the rules."

The EU's Stability and Growth Pact comprises a set of rules to pursue sound fiscal health. The Excessive Debt Procedure is launched if a member state exceeds or is in risk of breaching the deficit threshold of 3 percent of the gross domestic product.