Why the European Union needs its own payment system

The immediate strategic goal of the US is the economic colonisation of Europe, which everywhere and always meant taking over cash flow management. For two fundamental reasons: first, it allows to pick up profits, and second, it gives political power, real political power.

As the analysis of experts of the EuroCommerce association showed, out of every five payment transactions on cards of any European banks, four are processed by the American Mastercard and Visa systems. This is no longer just dominance, it is a natural oligopoly that is gradually absorbing the European financial market.

Having finally realised the inability to face it alone, three dozen leading European banks and financial companies have formed a fund of 30 million euros to create their own "European financial champion”, able to compete on equal terms with PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Google and Apple.

Among others, the initiators include Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit and Santander, which process more than half of all payments in Europe. What immediately catches the eye is the fact that all these organisations meet two criteria: on the one hand, they are the largest players in the European financial market, on the other, they are not part of American or British multinational financial holdings.

And this coincidence is hardly accidental, rather, on the contrary. European "big money" finally realised the necessity to unite in order to gain the opportunity to fight for their lives in the super-heavy league of world finance. They are supported in this by the European Commission and the financial regulators of the eurozone.

Europe's main problem is in its fragmentation. Formally, the EU is large, it occupies an entire continent, but its payment systems are often limited to the territories of individual countries, without accepting or sending payments even to neighbouring European states. Such is this greed, in the hope of outperforming competitors and becoming the largest "according to the old method".

If there were no other financial sharks in the world besides Europe, the game would have made sense, but now this "everyone for themselves" brawl has become a threat to the EU's financial future, and after the loss of control over financial flows, also to its political perspective, because there is no power without money.

The European Payment Initiative (EPI) should eliminate this problem by mid-2022, ensuring the globalisation of the service first within the European Union, and in the long term  by creating the basis for global coverage of the world. In order to push PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Google and Apple to the borders of the dollar settlement zone only.

Whether it will succeed or not is now becoming almost a key indicator that determines the answer to the question about the prospects of Europe's geopolitical subjectivity and its ability to form its own isolated economic cluster in the new world.

This also shows the correctness of Russia’s decision to create the MIR payment system and the need to maximise efforts to promote it, at least in the EEU.