DISINFO: The digital euro is Davos and NATO’s last resort to control the EU

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

DISINFO: The digital euro is Davos and NATO’s last resort to control the EU

SUMMARY

The European Central Bank's digital euro entails massive surveillance and a total loss of sovereignty, so real freedom cannot be talked about. There are strong reasons at a geopolitical level for this measure that the ECB wants to adopt with unusual urgency. The imposition, almost by force, of the digital currency of the EU is the last strong, big, key international power block remaining for NATO and Davos. They lost the US, they lost China, and the only supporting point they have to continue fighting and remain at the table of the big actors is to control the EU. That’s why they go so fast.

RESPONSE

This is an attempt to discredit plans by the European Central Bank to progressively introduce a digital euro currency by baselessly framing it as a “surveillance tool” and a “loss of sovereignty” on behalf of supranational entities, echoing and spreading a well-identified conspiracy theory. In this case, the goal is to advance several recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives against the European Union and about its alleged lack of sovereignty. Pro-Kremlin disinformation regularly promotes conspiracy theories as a way to undermine democracy.

While there has been a strong debate in the last years among European leaders and experts about the advisability of a digital euro currency, with prominent figures advocating both for and against it, this project has nothing to do with what this disinformation story claims. As the ECB has explained, the digital euro would be an electronic equivalent to cash, complementing banknotes and coins and giving people an additional choice about how to pay through a system accessible and accepted in all euro area countries. It would address the fact that there is no European digital payment option that covers the entire euro area, with 13 out of 20 countries reliant on international card schemes for card payments. According to the ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane, the digital euro would also strengthen Europe’s monetary sovereignty and cohesion.

Contrary to what this disinformation story claims, there is no rush to implement this project, as it is progressing at approximately the same pace as outlined since the first phase started in November 2023. A second preparatory phase is expected to start in October 2025.

See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the EU “out-of-control elite class” strips states of their statehood imposing its Marxists values, that the EU does not need Russian 'interference' as it has Brussels for that, that the EU is not a democratic entity, it is NATO’s political arm, that NATO may get Europeans extinct, removing their pensions and social security, or that the US will not let Europe out of its control.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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