French payments group Cartes Bancaires, known as CB, wants to rally Europe against the grip of Visa and Mastercard. Officials worry the U.S. duo's control over transactions could turn into a weapon. Amid rising transatlantic tensions, CB pushes co-badging. Cards bear both local and international logos. Domestic payments route through European rails. Fees stay home. Data too. Philippe Laulanie, CB's director general, told the Financial Times his network reversed a slide. Share of French payments fell from over 90% five years back to 75%. Now it's climbing. Around 30 candidates eye joining. French President Emmanuel Macron backs it, calling CB the 'last kilometer of our economic sovereignty.' CB handles 80% of domestic French card transactions with 77 million cards in play. Co-badging lets banks issue cards that work everywhere. But merchants choose the network. Prioritize CB for local buys. Visa and Mastercard take international ones. Simple. Effective. And Europe feels the urgency.…