What the European Union (EU) likes to say about itself is increasingly at odds with its practice. Solidarity, democracy, peace, and prosperity form the backdrop. But behind that backdrop operates something very different: a financial cartel that enforces policy, collectivises risk, and concentrates power beyond the reach of citizens.

The euro was not an economic project but a political experiment. Countries with vastly different economies, productivity levels, and fiscal cultures were forced into a single monetary straitjacket. Without a shared democracy, without shared fiscal sovereignty, yet with one central bank wielding enormous monetary power without direct accountability to voters. This was no accident. It was the design.

Since then, the European machine has run on a single principle: keeping debt alive and pushing it forward. Banks are rescued, markets calmed, and bonds bought up. Not because it is sustainable, but because the system would otherwise collapse. Southern Europe was locked into austerity, Northern Europe into permanent guarantees. Profits are private, losses collective.

At the heart of this cartel stands the European Central Bank. Officially independent, in reality politically indispensable. Through asset-purchase programs, emergency facilities, and interest-rate interventions, it has grown into the continent’s most powerful economic actor. Parliaments debate, but the real decisions are made elsewhere, technocratic, opaque, and untouchable.

Democratic correction is nearly impossible. Those who resist Brussels-mandated budget discipline or “reforms” find the financial screws tightened. Greece was not an exception, but a warning. Elections change governments, not the course. That is not cooperation; it is conditionality.

The cartel also functions legally. European rules override national law, yet responsibility remains diffuse. Citizens cannot vote out policymakers who make decisions in councils, committees, and institutions that directly affect their standard of living. Power without accountability is the hallmark of every cartel.

Meanwhile, the gap widens not only between countries but also between insiders and outsiders. Large financial institutions, multinationals, and lobby groups navigate Brussels effortlessly. Small businesses, workers, and local communities do not. The internal market is free, except for those without scale, capital, or access.

The irony is that all this happens under the banner of “unity.” Criticism is dismissed as anti-European, as if the Union were synonymous with Europe itself. That may be the greatest manipulation of all: presenting an institutional project as a civilisation.

Europe, as a continent, has a rich history, culture, and diversity. The European Union as a structure has spreadsheets, treaties, and emergency mechanisms. As long as the financial system leads and democracy follows, tensions will persist, no matter how many flags are raised.

A union that survives only through money flows and coercion is no union at all. It is a cartel. And cartels never serve the public; they serve only themselves.