ECB President Warns Europe Faces Risk to Payment Sovereignty, Digital Euro as Key Solution

Huoxing Finance reports, according to Finance Feeds, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warned at an ECB meeting that Europe risks losing payment sovereignty, as dollar-stablecoins and foreign networks dominate the future financial infrastructure. Lagarde noted that Europe lacks its own pan-European card network, with international card organizations accounting for over 60% of card payments in Europe, and 13 of the 21 eurozone countries no longer have national card schemes. She stated that a digital euro could break this pattern, as its status as legal tender must be accepted across Europe. Lagarde emphasized that tokenized finance requires central bank money to scale securely, and market participants have indicated they will not issue digital assets at scale without central bank settlement infrastructure. The ECB is advancing the Pontes and Appia initiatives and establishing connections between TIPS and India’s UPI and Southeast Asia’s Nexus system. She warned that if member states independently develop legal frameworks, fragmentation—currently being eroded by technology—will reemerge at the legal level. This competition has evolved into a geopolitical and sovereignty issue.