Financial Sovereignty, Digital Euro, and Payment Roaming: The EU Seeks Alternatives to US Cards

Every year, Europe spends billions of euros on card payments, the vast majority of which are processed outside European systems. The great majority of card purchases are made thru Visa or MasterCard, two US businesses that dominate worldwide payments.

For many years, this was regarded as the price to pay for the efficiency that these US behemoths provided anytime a card was used to pay for a service or product. Given the likelihood that this infrastructure will be used as a geopolitical weapon, EU leaders now regard this dependence as a vulnerability that Europe cannot afford to ignore.

This is one of the justifications used by the European Central Bank (ECB) as it seeks approval for the digital euro from the European Parliament. The institution led by Christine Lagarde cautions that Europe’s reliance on foreign payment systems makes it vulnerable to political pressure or sudden disruption.

With a single snap of his fingers, Donald Trump might destabilize more than just European military security. What would happen if the US president abruptly turned off the infrastructure that allows Europeans to pay for their daily purchases?

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