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Card payments are gaining ground among Europeans: they accounted for 57% of non-cash payments in 2025. Yet the EU’s level of dependency on foreign-owned payment schemes has never been higher.
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The non-interoperability of national payment schemes leaves 13 out of 21 eurozone countries highly dependent on US giants, most notably Visa and Mastercard, which processed 47% of the eurozone’s card payment value in 2025.
The lack of a pan-European payment system contributes to the single market’s fragmentation, heavily affecting Europe’s competitiveness and impacting citizens’ day-to-day transactions.
As EU-US relations have deteriorated, the possibility of 450 million Europeans being cut off from the international financial system is no longer unthinkable. After all, Russia’s financial isolation in 2022 showed how political tensions can influence decisions on the other side of the Atlantic.
While EU leaders are racing against time to find a solution, WERO seems to be, for now, the only attempt to help Europe reclaim its monetary sovereignty.
Want to know how WERO wants to regain control of Europe’s money flows? Ask the Euronews AI chatbot!
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