Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union will seriously affect its budget, the contributions of the member countries can grow, the European Commission warned. This statement was perceived ambiguously: if in the East of Europe they enthusiastically supported and urged everyone to fork out, then Austria and the Netherlands do not intend to pay in addition.
According to the report of the European Parliament, Brexit will lead to the fact that the annual budget of the EU “will lose weight” in the amount of 10 to 12 billion euros. As the European Commissioner for Budget Günther Oettinger said, even taking into account the reduction in financing of a number of programs to cover the deficit, it is necessary to raise membership fees. The governments of the EU member states were proposed to deduct 1.1 percent of their gross national product (GNP) to the coffers of the alliance. The previous rate is one percent of GNP, but in reality no one reached this milestone either.
The deficit will not appear immediately – by agreement with Brussels, London will continue to pay membership fees until 2020 and finance several pan-European programs after this time. However, the next budget for 2021-2027 will be leaky. Oettinger called on the members of the union to increase the deductions. He was supported by the head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker.
The first to respond to the call were the Eastern European states – at a meeting with Oettinger representatives of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania seemed to agree to pay more. However, immediately followed a disconnect: the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance disowned the vigorous message, saying that “such a position was not discussed in any working or official negotiation format.”
But Brussels came in time with help from the shores of the Baltic. In a message to the chairman of the European Council Donald Tusk, the leaders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia called on the EU members to increase their contributions.
Eastern enthusiasm was not taken everywhere in the West. Austrian Minister for EU Affairs Gernot Blümel diplomatically stated that his country counts on preserving the European Union in its former composition. Thus, he made it clear that Vienna is in no hurry to increase contributions to the Brussels’ coffers.
Meanwhile, Günther Oettinger continues his European tour, urging the leaders of the countries to support their initiative. Last Monday, he met with his main ally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. Germany, the main donor of Brussels, was unequivocally in support of Oettinger.
“The spread of opinions between the West and the East of Europe is quite understandable,” Andrei Kortunov, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council, says: “Countries that receive more from the EU than they themselves allocate it are interested in increasing the contributions.”
For example, in 2016 Hungary transferred to Brussels less than one billion euros, while the country received more than 4.5 billion from the EU. To Lithuania – five times more than its contribution, to Poland – three times. At the same time, Austria has contributed more than 2.7 billion to the budget, and less than two billion have returned to it. The Netherlands gave twice as much as received.
The jarrings in the western camp are primarily due to political reasons. For example, Germany and France intend to further strengthen their influence in Europe, competing with each other. For them, to preserve the economic power of the EU is a tool for realizing their own ambitions.
As for Austria and the Netherlands, they are fully involved in the formation of the European budget, but, first, they receive much less from Brussels than they give. And secondly, their considerable funds go to support economically weak members of the European Union, the number of which is constantly growing.
The refusal to increase the amount of contributions to the European Union is a perfectly understandable resistance to the ineffective management of the alliance and the irrational distribution of its budget, which indicates the process of rationalization of European economic policy.