While the Belgians simply eliminate their local scheme in order to gain EU-wide acceptance by choosing Maestro, the Germans choose to pilot interconnection of existing debit-card schemes. See this press release of German Banks (Payment News). To that end the first letters of intent are signed between:
-EUFISERV, a European supplier of processing services for card payments,
-SIBS, the operator of the ATM and card payment system “Multibanco” in Portugal,
-Raiffeisen Landesbank Südtirol and Südtiroler Volksbank.
To follow are (if all goes well) EURO6000. Dutch Interpay has already announced to join the trial.
And the name of this new interconnecting animal will be: Euro Alliance of Payment Schemes (EAPS...).
