Europe has decided that payment sovereignty matters. It is right to. But the debate has not fixed on the true target. The argument that Europe is dangerously dependent on two American card schemes has become the headline case for the digital euro, and it mistakes the visible part of the system for the vulnerable one. The real exposure is not the card in your pocket. It is the currency behind it.
Payments sovereignty is not primarily about plastic cards. It is about currency power, legal jurisdiction, and the financial infrastructures that governs how money moves globally. Europe’s true payment vulnerability lies in the dominance of the US dollar and the extraterritorial reach of US law over global financial markets.
