Common borrowing is the EU’s colpo grosso to abolish Europeans’ economic sovereignty

European leaderships, faced with the reality of their geopolitical crushing between the United States and Russia, are advancing a plan for common borrowing with the aim of removing the economic sovereignty of the member states of the Old Continent.
Despite the fact that common borrowing has been a taboo for the European Union, even the German Constitution prohibits direct bailouts of states, and Karlsruhe always put the brakes on Angela Merkel, in order to preserve its power the “deep state of Brussels” is attempting to entangle European peoples in a venture that is equivalent to economic suicide.
On the one hand, they want to entrench an anti-Russian stance, which European peoples do not embrace, and in order to pay the bill for Ukraine, which is estimated at over 1.5 trillion euros in the medium term, they will turn the continent into a debt “colony.”
And all of this to entrench their power in view of a major political change that is already foreshadowed in France and Germany.
As approval for Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Mertz sinks to rock bottom, a retreating European leadership is driving the entire continent into economic and geopolitical suicide.

The geopolitical defeat

The honeyed and stalling words of Marco Rubio about the transatlantic relationship may have deceived some Europeans at the Munich Security Conference, who gave him a standing ovation.
However, his decision to travel the next day to Hungary to support the electoral prospects of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made clear what already emerged from a careful reading of his speech.
Despite declarations about ties with Europe, the government of Donald Trump considers it weak, and he is likely ready to divide up its spoils with other more significant “players” such as Russia and China.
It considers it, as recorded in the United States national security text, to be going through a period of cultural, military, and economic decline.
After the Greenland crisis, EU leaders discussed ways to strengthen their economy so that it can withstand pressure from the United States and China.
Proposals from the Commission are expected ahead of the official EU summit in March, however the promise to intensify efforts to reduce bureaucracy, strengthen investments, expand trade, and deepen the single market is probably indicative of the surrounding despair.

Macron’s proposal and the common ministry of finance

Earlier in the week, President Emmanuel Macron had come out in favor of common European borrowing to finance investments in defense and security, climate, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, sectors in which Europe risks being sidelined by the United States and China.
“Now is the time to inaugurate a common borrowing capacity for these future-oriented expenditures,” he said.
However, his proposal for “future-focused eurobonds” (front-loaded common borrowing) was immediately rejected by Germany, among others.
Mario Draghi supported it emphatically in his report on the competitiveness of the single market, as well as in subsequent interventions.
There are public goods that make sense to be financed only at EU level, either because nation-states do not have the necessary scale, or because national financing would reinforce the fragmentation of the single market rather than its unification.
This applies especially to defense.
If Europe seeks strategic autonomy, it must invest in its own “strategic accelerators,” satellite systems, transport capabilities, which today are provided exclusively by the United States.
At the same time, the European defense industry remains fragmented along national lines, leading to higher costs, low interoperability, and limited production lines.
Common EU borrowing supposedly offers an additional strategic benefit as well.
A deep and liquid euro debt market is of decisive importance for channeling Europe’s vast private savings into domestic investments, a key objective of the proposals for the Savings and Investments Union, which is why the latest moves by the ECB concern the ability to provide liquidity in euros.

Such a market is more likely to develop, under the scenario, if it is anchored in a strong eurozone “safe asset,” which would offer a positive yield curve and attract international capital.
At a time when international investors are seeking alternatives to dollar assets, due to concerns about the fiscal sustainability of the United States and the rule of law, the EU has a real opportunity to strengthen the role of the euro as a global reserve currency. For this reason, the European Central Bank, under the leadership of Christine Lagarde, has openly come out in favor of issuing common debt, a position also echoed by the president of the Bundesbank, Joachim Nagel.

Objections and reality

Nevertheless, the issue remains politically sensitive in certain member states, mainly in Germany and in the Netherlands.
In part, this reflects fear of a fiscal union, where states would accept debt mutualization.
During the eurozone debt crisis, eurobonds had been proposed to absorb part of national debts, proposals that were rightly rejected, as they would have required a substantive transfer of fiscal competences to the EU.
Macron proposes financing specific investment projects, along the lines of Next Generation EU, but the reality is that, as Wolfgang Schäuble used to say, there can be no common borrowing without a European Ministry of Finance.
This is being promoted if one reads carefully the statements of the head of the European Central Bank.

The coalition of the willing and the removal of democratic legitimacy

The President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde, divorcing herself from any effort to democratically legitimize the decisions taken in Brussels, called on EU governments to rely on “coalitions of the willing” to push through long-delayed economic reforms, arguing that the Union does not need all 27 member states to agree in order to move forward.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Saturday 21 February 2026, Lagarde referred to the 21-country euro area as proof that deeper integration can function without full unanimity of all EU member states.
“We don’t have all 27 members around the table, and yet it works,” she said.
Lagarde’s statements come as EU leaders discuss how to complete the long-delayed capital markets union, now renamed the Savings and Investments Union.
The project aims to deepen cross-border financial markets and mobilize private savings.
Frustration with slow progress led several large member states, such as France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, to support a “two-speed” approach that would allow smaller groups of countries to integrate faster.
The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU could consider “enhanced cooperation” if unanimity is not achieved.
As a sign of growing impatience, Lagarde earlier this month sent EU leaders a five-point list of “urgent need” measures titled “Time for action,” which included measures to complete capital markets, corporate harmonization, and coordination of research.
Lagarde told the Wall Street Journal that even partial implementation of these measures would significantly strengthen Europe’s growth potential.

Moral hazard and fiscal derailment

A second argument against common borrowing is “moral hazard,” meaning that it would discourage governments from reducing their national debts.
However, as Gilles Moec, chief economist of AXA, notes, the data do not confirm this concern.
Italy, the largest recipient of resources from NextGenEU, reduced its fiscal deficit faster than forecasts over the last two years.
At the same time, political audiences in fiscally disciplined countries do not want to hear about the prospect.
On Saturday 21/2, the Christian Democratic Union had Friedrich Mertz swear that he would not immediately seek a new easing of the debt brake.
A properly designed and supervised program can strengthen growth and improve debt dynamics overall.

The EU debt market is immature

In recent years, thanks mainly to the Recovery Fund (NextGenEU), the EU has created a large and standardized bond market.
Its size increased from 45 billion euros in 2019 to 780 billion euros today, making Europe the fifth-largest issuer of euro-denominated debt and the third-largest triple-A-rated issuer globally.
Alongside financing the post-pandemic recovery, the EU has provided 150 billion euros in loans for defense procurement through the SAFE program, as well as a 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine.
However, most of this debt begins to be repaid from 2028.
Within the new Multiannual Financial Framework, about 8% of the next seven-year budget, around 168 billion euros, is projected for debt servicing.
Its refinancing and the creation of additional fiscal space, so that the EU can borrow more to invest in its future security and prosperity, is being cast into doubt in view of the rise in general economic uncertainty and the violent moves expected in debt markets

This plan of the directorate of Brussels must be politically brought down by the patriotic forces of Europe before it leads to unprecedented economic destruction.

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