The Euro Has the Power to Challenge the Dollar
Growing U.S. unilateralism is an opportunity to end the greenback’s dominance.
Jean-Claude Juncker is throwing down the gauntlet.
Source: European Parliament/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker isn’t a nationalist populist, but he devoted his State of the European Union address on Wednesday to the defense of “European sovereignty.” This means, among other things, using the euro to challenge the U.S. dollar’s global dominance, particularly in an era of growing American unilateralism.
“The euro must become the face and the instrument of a new, more sovereign Europe,” Juncker said. “It is absurd that Europe pays for 80 percent of its energy import bill — worth 300 billion euro a year — in U.S. dollar when only roughly 2 percent of our energy imports come from the United States. It is absurd that European companies buy European planes in dollars instead of euro.”