How Europe lost its independence (the secret Swift story)

Until now, German Foreign Minister Maas gave the Atlanticist. But now he is cautiously distancing himself from the US – kind of.

In order to counter Iran’s sanctions, Maas calls for more independence in payment transactions for the EU. Such plans already existed years ago – they were torpedoed by Berlin and Brussels.

Maas demands “that we strengthen European autonomy by establishing payment channels independent of the US, creating a European Monetary Fund and establishing an independent Swift system”.

Swift is an international financial services provider based in Brussels. In 2008, Swift set up a new data centre in Switzerland in order to evade the American “Big Brother”. What Maas is demanding today has already been done.

But now comes the trick: The EU secretly, quietly and quietly negotiated a banking data agreement with the US, which secured Washington further access – supposedly to uncover terrorist financing.

This Swift agreement was top secret until I unveiled it in the Handelsblatt. But the EU’s reaction was not to drop the dirty deal. On the contrary: Brussels and Berlin exerted pressure to implement it.

Chancellor Merkel stood out particularly – as she does today, defending the US once again (despite the EU-hostile Iran sanctions!) and thwarting her own foreign minister.

With regard to terrorist financing – “and the Swift Agreement is of crucial importance here” – the EU needs a “close partnership with the USA”. Security cooperation is “extremely useful and helpful”.

In a nutshell: What Maas is demanding today would have been possible ten years ago – if Merkel and the EU hadn’t leveraged it in a secret deal. So much for “European independence”…

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator – the original post is here (in German)