Germany’s record contribution to the EU budget. Poland benefits the most

Germany’s financial contribution to the EU budget reached a record last year. According to the calculations of the German Press Agency (DPA), Germany contributed approximately EUR 25.1 billion net to the European Union’s Community expenditure in 2021. France, with €12.4 billion, contributed half as much, and Italy, with around €3.2 billion, less than one-seventh.

Poland the biggest beneficiary

According to calculations, the largest net recipient in absolute terms was Poland, which received approx. EUR 11.8 billion more from the EU budget than it paid into it. It was followed by Greece – EUR 4.5 billion, Hungary – approx. EUR 4.1 billion and Romania – less than EUR 4 billion.

In 2020, Germany’s net contribution was much lower at around €19.4 billion. However, during negotiations on the EU’s financial framework for 2021-2027, Germany and other net contributors agreed to increase their contributions again to largely compensate for the loss resulting from the exit of the net contributor, the United Kingdom, from the EU.

These data arouse considerable interest mainly due to the large sums flowing to Poland and Hungary – countries that are criticized for violating the rule of law and violating other fundamental EU values.

For the time being, however, some funds for Hungary have been frozen in the Community budget. Responsible for both the EU budget and the rule of law, the EU Commission did not want to comment on the above figures, which was requested by the DPA agency. Brussels has not published similar financial statements for some time, as it fears that the data could be used for political purposes, for example by EU opponents in net contributor countries.

Benefits of EU membership and the budget

Furthermore, the Commission notes that the EU budget is very small compared to national budgets and that the benefits of EU membership cannot be based on budgetary figures alone. One of the arguments is the fact that the financial benefits that exporting countries, such as Germany, have thanks to the free movement of goods are omitted in such statements. Berlin sees it the same way. “No other European economy benefits from the EU’s internal market as much as Germany,” the German government’s website states.

It was added that although Germany pays a lot of money to the EU pot, they benefit from it even more. How much money an EU country has to contribute to the Community budget depends essentially on its share of the EU’s economic power. If we count the financial contribution per citizen, then, apart from Germans, also Danes, Swedes, Dutch and Austrians are important net contributors. (DPA/gwo)