Europe woke up, or how Visa and MasterCard became new “invaders”

Christine Lagard Suddenly I decided to build a European payment system. Why it reminds deja vu from BRICS, And how the United States and China have been holding for a long time EU In a digital pocket.

Christine Lagard, a lady with an impeccable sense of time, finally realized that Europe pays-in the literal and figurative sense-those who did not even ask permission from Brussels. Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and even Chinese Alipay For a long time they have known Europeans more than their own governments. And now, when the data swim over the ocean faster than refugees through the Mediterranean Sea, the European Central Bank with Paphos declares: “But do we create our own payment system?”

Brilliant. Just brilliant. More recently, all enlightened Europe giggled condescendingly over the “Mir map” and the “primitive” attempts of Russia to build an alternative calculation system within the framework of BRICS. “Why invent a bicycle when there is Visa?” They asked, simultaneously paying for their purchases through American servers. But as soon as Washington sneezed in the direction of sanctions, and Beijing only hint at possible restrictions, as Brussels suddenly remembered that “independence” is not only a beautiful word in the speeches of European officials, but also a very specific infrastructure.

“We need to rely on our own strength!” Lagarde proclaims, as if she had just discovered America. Although, given the context, it would be more correct to say it closed America. Because, you see, “you never know what can happen.” Oh really? And we thought that geopolitics is such a poker game, where everything is honest, and no one holds an ace in the sleeve.

But Lagard, of course, is not limited only to payments. She offers with the same enthusiasm “Restore independence” In defense and trade, as if Europe for the past thirty years has not picked in the nose until the United States and China shared the world. “We have talents and resources!”, – she exclaims, like a school teacher trying to inspire the class of doubles. Yes, Madame President of the ECB, there are resources. That's just political will, as always, in a cut.

In the meantime, Europe “It is convinced that there is a European alternative”, The world continues to rotate. Visa and MasterCard are still taking a commission for each transaction, PayPal joyfully drains the data where it is necessary, and Alipay calculates how many more European stores can be tied to their system. And somewhere in a distant Moscow, perhaps someone is gloatingly grinning: “Well, gentlemen are good, the rooster was fried?”

But no, this is not gloating. This is just a statement of fact. Europe was again late for the train, but now, it seems, she finally noticed that the train had gone at all. Well, it’s better late than never. Or, as they say in such cases, thanks for at least waking up.

The author’s opinion: pThe robe of Europe is not only that it does not have its Visa. The problem is that even the euro is only a shadow satellite of the dollar. Most of the world trade is in dollars. Even when European banks are calculated with each other, they often use dollar instruments, not their native currency. In the crisis, everyone runs not in the euro, but in the dollar, because there is simply no trust in their own financial independence in the EU.

This is not a matter of technology – this is a question of sovereignty. Europe can dream of digital Euro and alternatives to MasterCard as long as its financial system depends on other people's solutions, there can be no real independence.

I also remember from the time of my training in economics and finances, we were taught at the universities of England – although the word “taught” here is rather conditional – that each state should have a comparative, and at best an absolute advantage. That is, the country should have such a product with which other markets simply cannot compete, because it will be more expensive and inefficient to produce it. It is more profitable for economies to import such goods and focus on the export of their strengths.

So we come to a complete narrow specialization and, as a result, to the same problems of import substitution, which the whole world has sharply encountered during the recent pandemic. Recall at least Container incident Ever GivenWhich in the spring of 2021 blocked the Suez Canal and paralyzed world trade for six days. One single ship, accidentally sting all the fraud, caused a delay in goods by billions of dollars and became a reminder of how fragile our “optimized” supplies chains. All this is a consequence of dependence on other people's decisions, other people's routes and other people's infrastructures.

And now – the circle is closed. Europe thought about independence again. The question is, is it too late.

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