WHO PAYS FOR THE UNION?

MIROSŁAW PIOTROWSKI

Every EU country pays 1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product to the EU budget jointly and severally

‘Stop financing euro-skeptic groups’ – this is the motto imposed by the German euro-deputy, the chief of the biggest political fraction in the European Parliament Manfred Weber. The fraction includes among the others euro-deputies of the Civic Platform party and the Polish Peasant’s party, so he speaks also on their behalf. Weber means European parties, which function on eth EU level on the basis of the Lisbon Treaty and are donated from the EU budget. However, he wonders ‘whether the Union should finance these fractions, give them money for the anti-European activity’. Undoubtedly, he means the so-called populists – Geert Wilders in Holland marine Le Pen in France, Nigel Farage in Great Britain, Lega Nord and the Movement of Five Stars in Italy – and we can only guess that he will spread it onto conservatives who have been demanding the reform of the Union for a long time: who pays for the Union in fact? One could say that the chief of the Christian Democrats Weber is right if nobody else but enthusiasts of the European Union donated it. However, the problem is that all citizens of 28 member countries pay money for it. Everybody is forced to pay tax regardless if he is a euro-enthusiast, euro-skeptic or euro-realist, or if he does not care about it. Because we all pay, everybody can elect their representatives, whereas the representatives should be treated equally. I will remind that every member country pays 1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product to the EU budget jointly and severally. The rest of money is influx from VAT, customs, agricultural fees and compensatory fees. The Union, as an organization, does not have its own incomes – they are redistributed. However, it is obvious that 1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of Germany in actual numbers is much higher than 1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of Holland, Lithuania, Estonia or Malta, holding presidency at present. Nevertheless, at least theoretically, it was not to mean overwhelming dominance of big net payers over the smaller ones, or a political dictate of the Euro-parliamentary majority over the minority. Depriving the last one of participating in the fair division of EU means, is to lead to stifling a voice and muting media information from disapproved groups. Pursuing this kind of policy in Europe, unfortunately, does not being good thoughts and these thoughts concern the last century and politicians and the country from which the initiator of the action comes from.

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„Niedziela” 13/2017

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
Editor-in-chief: Fr Jaroslaw Grabowski • E-mail: redakcja@niedziela.pl