Europe relies heavily on U.S. payment infrastructures, Visa and Mastercard, which account for 61% of card transactions in the eurozone. Initiatives such as Wero or the digital euro seek to strengthen its sovereignty, but are progressing slowly and raising questions. In a context of geopolitical competition, how can Europe assert its autonomy in this area?
EU dependence on digital and payment infrastructure
Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the International Criminal Court, has been subject to U.S. sanctions since August 20, 2025. This action comes in response to his involvement in the issuance of an international arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The price Netanyahu must pay carries major practical consequences, namely the freezing of his bank accounts (even within the eurozone) and the blocking of his payment methods (Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Amazon, Apple Pay).
This violation of independence and the international legal order comes amid geopolitical tensions between Europe and the United States. What would happen if Donald Trump decided to cut Europe off from the Visa and Mastercard networks?
Lately, the concepts of “sovereignty” and “strategic autonomy” have been ubiquitous in public and political debate. Yet, as the Exaion case shows, their scope differs greatly depending on whether they serve pragmatic interests or political promises.
In recent days, Aurore Lalucq, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, has been making numerous public appearances to advocate for European sovereignty in digital and payment matters.
“Visa, Mastercard… the urgent issue is our payment system. Trump could cut us off from everything.
The rest is just poetry.
I urgently call on the committee to organize an ‘Airbus’ of European payment systems.
You won’t be able to say you weren’t warned. ” pic.twitter.com/y2VRsZTNF0
— Aurore Lalucq (@AuroreLalucq) January 21, 2026
It should be noted that the American duopoly of Visa and Mastercard accounts for 61% of card payments in the eurozone, according to the ECB. One might argue that some countries have their own networks, such as France with the CB network, Germany with Girocard, or Belgium with BPC, as well as Norway, Denmark, Portugal, and Italy.
However, as our colleague Grégory Raymond points out, all other countries remain entirely dependent on Visa and Mastercard’s infrastructure.
With the new tensions between Europe and the United States, one naturally wonders about the risks if Trump were to decide to suspend the Visa and Mastercard payment networks.
This seems unlikely to me, but with the current U.S. administration, we have learned that… pic.twitter.com/cWPsuLnXmz
— Grégory Raymond (@gregory_raymond) January 18, 2026
Furthermore, these national systems were designed to operate solely at the national level and do not support cross-border payments. Thus, in the early 2000s, faced with the choice of joining Visa and Mastercard or financing the costly expansion of their own systems themselves, European banks opted for the most economical solution.
Today, the reality of our geopolitical situation serves as a reminder that a technological choice can entail structural dependencies. Indeed, Visa and Mastercard are not merely technical service providers, as they not only facilitate the transmission of transactions between banks but also define the network’s rules, secure transactions, and certify terminals.
In addition to this political dimension, we must also consider economic dependence. Whether they are banks or merchants, they have no bargaining power over the fees and service changes proposed by the American giants.
Wero and the digital euro: instruments of European sovereignty?
In light of this situation, in 2020, a consortium of major European banks launched the “European Payments Initiative” (EPI). After running up against economic realities, several banks withdrew from this extremely costly project.
Following this failure, the EPI decided to rely on an existing but underutilized technology: the SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) instant transfer. From this system emerged the Wero system, which we know well today for its ability to make transfers in a matter of seconds, directly between bank accounts.
Rolled out to the general public in 2024, Wero currently only allows payments between individuals. The project’s credibility, however, depends on its ability to gain acceptance among merchants—a prerequisite for effectively competing with Visa and Mastercard.
Meanwhile, the ECB is pursuing another project: the digital euro. This central bank digital currency (CBDC) aims to introduce a new form of currency, complementary to the current euro.
This project is progressing slowly: launched in 2021, the ECB plans an initial issuance for 2029. Furthermore, it raises serious concerns regarding privacy, security, and oversight.
Does centralization go hand in hand with autonomy?
Thus, according to Gregory Raymond, the only viable solution lies in stablecoins. For the past week, the French global leader in payment terminals, Ingenico, has been offering its merchant clients the ability to accept stablecoin payments via WalletConnect.
To date, the supported stablecoins are USDC and EURC from the American company Circle. As our colleague explains, the EURCV developed by Société Générale’s crypto subsidiary holds promise but faces scaling issues due to insufficient liquidity.
Once again, reality shows that sovereignty remains a desirable political ideal, while U.S. infrastructure benefits from scalability and deployment capabilities that are hard to match.
It is also worth considering the difference between the terms “sovereignty” and “autonomy.” What about a stablecoin issued and backed by a private company? Whether the central institution is public, private, federal, or national, this intermediary requires the trust of users.
Could the tool of our autonomy be an apolitical, flagless entity, already accessible in its purest form all over the world? What if the solution we’re looking for is actually right in front of us? Yes, I’m talking about Bitcoin.
