Emancipating the euro

This essay argues that Trump-era policy unpredictability — erratic Ukraine and alliance diplomacy, rising fiscal deficits, and resistance to digital-dollar innovation — is eroding global confidence in the US dollar, opening a strategic window for the euro. Meanwhile, China is building infrastructure through the digital yuan, CIPS, and the mBridge cross-border payment system, slashing settlement times and costs. Though the euro is the world's second reserve currency, the EU treats it as modernization rather than geopolitical strategy. The author urges Europe to open digital-euro infrastructure abroad, extend swap lines, boost bond issuance, and weigh whether seizing frozen Russian assets risks its credibility.

The essay was written for the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics and you find it here: https://big-europe.eu/publications/2025-04-10-emancipating-the-euro