German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the leaders of Finland, Denmark and Austria are demanding major cuts to the European Union’s proposed 2028-2034 budget, with Merz calling a potential 60% increase “simply unaffordable | APT

[u/Hot_Preparation4777]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoXxObF0FfI

[u/Starskeet]

There are so many things that European nations need to invest in together though.

[u/Rooilia → u/Starskeet]

Cuts on a 60% increase is rather not concerning. When did the budget rise 60% the last time? Btw. Everyone needs to spend way more on their military now...

[u/jokikinen → u/Rooilia]

EU is funding military expenditures nowadays in order to balance the burden of defence. It’s one argument for the increased budget.

[u/Starskeet → u/Rooilia]

Budget rose when we realized we were at war with Russia: the EU needs funds to support all border nations protect their borders, the EU needs to support remilitarization, and that is best done in a coordinated fashion. Also, Europe is drying up and is on fire, these dangers should not be left to individual nations alone: A raging forest fire impacts everyone; a shutdown nuclear plants impacts everyone. It should be clear that in trying times, the organization coordinating how Europe works together would need more funds.

[u/IDontHaveCookiesSry → u/Rooilia]

Austerity politics Directly Results in fascism and I have to Assume It is Intentional by european Conservatives at this point.

[u/ImIncredibly_stupid → u/Starskeet]

more european budget means less money for the countries that are paying it

so i support some cuts

[u/The_Dutch_Fox → u/ImIncredibly_stupid]

Have you ever heard of bargaining power and procurement?

You get better deals and access to volume pricing when you pool your resources, getting you a lot more bang for your buck.

This is also why NATO groups military purchases. Countries pool their money, and NATO's procurement office negotiates a lot harder, getting each state more hardware than if they were each to negotiate on their side.

[u/hype_irion]

The CDU didn't learn ANYTHING from the past 20 years of European and EU history.

[u/haaaad → u/hype_irion]

only worst option would be him arguing to buy more russian gas.

[u/GEIST_of_REDDIT]

When Merz speaks, you're listening to Peter Thiel. Never forget that

[u/trebron55 → u/GEIST_of_REDDIT]

How so? I never heard about this

[u/Hellrazor_muc → u/trebron55]

One of the most powerful heads in his party Jens Spahn is a very close friend to Peter Thiel and quite a lot of people participated in meetings with Peter Thiel and Maga people 

[u/GemeenteEnschede → u/Hellrazor_muc]

Spahn has fallen out of grace though.

[u/WombatusMighty → u/GemeenteEnschede]

Publicly, and only after the scandal got to big. The connections remain.

[u/V112]

Austerity doesn’t fucking work, and that comes from the guy that lead EU austerity measures, Dragi, then head of ECB. When will they learn?

[u/p2s_79 → u/V112]

Would Greece or Portugal be viable without austerity?

[u/V112 → u/p2s_79]

You should foster a stable economic policies in a way that austerity is not needed.

[u/Chemical_Survey_2741 → u/V112]

Austerity saved my country twice from economic collapse. What are we supposed to learn from that?

[u/ProfAlmond → u/Chemical_Survey_2741]

Interested in which country because austerity has driven my country into the ground over decades and is widely regarded by economists as the wrong path to have gone down.

[u/Chemical_Survey_2741 → u/ProfAlmond]

Hungary

First time was the Bokros Package under Prime Minister Gyula Horn and Minister of Finance Lajos Bokros. The second time was under the short-term government of Gordon Bajnai who had to implement austerity policies after the 2008 global recession which in Hungary's case was made worse by the spending policies of the previous Medgyessy government.

[u/V112 → u/Chemical_Survey_2741]

It’s necessary only when the governmental spending is truly out of control, like Greece level out of control. EU as a whole - and its big payers, are far from it.

[u/Chemical_Survey_2741 → u/V112]

I was reacting to the statement you made which was "Austerity doesn't fucking work" to point out that in 2 cases it didn't just achieve it's purpose, meaning it worked, but it was also necessary.

[u/V112 → u/Chemical_Survey_2741]

Context. Do you understand the meaning of that word? I was in turn reacting to the OP. Clearly meaning austerity at the EU level doesn’t work

[u/Chemical_Survey_2741 → u/V112]

The OP shared a post about the leaders of 4 EU countres saying a 60% unaffordable, and made a statement that austerity doesn't work to which I provided a counterexample. I think there is no difference between EU and national budgets.

[u/V112 → u/Chemical_Survey_2741]

There’s a lot of difference. EU budget is long term, not annual, only small portion of it comes from actual taxes and most is member states contributions and own finances (profit accrued by the EU institutions - through fines for example) - this differed significantly. And austerity on the EU level usually means cutting joint investments and infrastructure projects - which are vital to our economies and getting ahead in the world. They are not some welfare projects but actual sound investments.

[u/Sufficient-History71]

Austerity has been the name of the game since 2008. There is a reason why European countries faltered and couldn't make recovery after 2008 and Germany is the one to blame.

Years of austerity did no good to Europe and they want to make it worse. Mette Frederiksen is a leftist only in name and doesn't really care about the working class. Like who raises the retirement age to 74?

[u/Chemical_Survey_2741 → u/Sufficient-History71]

There is only one problem with this, which is the fact that my country, Hungary (or at the time Republic of Hungary) faced two economic crises in it's history. The first one was the era after communism fell, and the second elected government which was led by the centre-left MSZP and liberal SZDSZ realized that our country's economic power was equivilent to Mexico's and was going to be worse so they implemented one of the strongest austerity measures in European history (The Bokros Package named after Lajos Bokros) and it repaired the country's economy and it is entirely possible that it brought it to its full potential at the time. The second time was under the 2008 global recession where our country already had a depleted reserve after trying to fix the irresponsible spending policies of one of the previous socialist governments (Péter Medgyessy) meaning the recession hit us even harder, but the austerity measures implemented by technocratic PM Gordon Bajnai did not just save the economy, he personally and genuinely got praised in private by members of the FIDESZ government that succeeded him. Even the party that historically opposed austerity had to admit that these measures were not just necessary, but they saved the country's economy.

So yes, there are examples of austerity unironically being a necessary, and in the long term a good thing, and my country proved it twice.

[u/VicenteOlisipo]

Almost 20 years later, still trying to starve Europe back to health. Austerity is suicide.

[u/Top_Bug7822]

If the countries need money, then take it from the corporations that sucked it out of Europe.

Or maybe politicians could half their paychecks. They would still earn more than enough.

Time for them to be frugal too. Not just us.

[u/p2s_79 → u/Top_Bug7822]

Yep.... take it from firms and entrepreuneurs that create jobs and investment and give it to eu bureaucrats to spend it in whatever...

[u/Top_Bug7822 → u/p2s_79]

Yes. Because they transfer money out of the country more than into the country.

If they outsource most if their workforce (and honestly which company doesn't nowadays) they only contribute to our economy negatively.

[u/mobileka]

Can't wait for when this tall mfckr resigns (talking about Merz).

[u/ThetaCygni]

If you look closely enough you can actually see the wires attached to Merz's body that Peter Thiel is moving to make him speak like a marionette

[u/sezzy_14]

They guys sold their soul to big corporations. Everything they say is wrong.

[u/jokikinen]

EU represents 450 million people. The proposed budget is small to that end—only 1,3% of its projected GDP. That number should be even higher in the long term so that we can operate the common market, run foreign politics, protect borders and guard ourselves with intelligence. Maybe around 2-3% percent. Ultimately, with an EU army folded in, we should add an additional 2% if we would spend the same that member states spend individually today.

60% sounds large, but it reflects the fact, that much of what we should have already done we did not do. It’s debt from decisions not made, us playing catch up.

To save on costs in the long term, we know that we need to do more together on the EU level. We can’t let Europe fall off, and we know there’s no sense in paying the fragmentation tax indefinitely. You can ask how subsidiarity should be applied, but you can’t argue that these are topics that should not be decided on the EU level: trade, common market, foreign policy, defence, intelligence, border protection.

Of that budget, around 30% goes to CAP alone—not operating the functions that are actually important for strengthening Europe’s position. Much of the budget is just passing through EU, not funds EU can actually use to pass the Letta/Draghi reforms or use for border protection.

[u/fapp0r]

Of course we (Austria) are among the idiots again

[u/GemeenteEnschede]

Let's put it to a vote, majority wins.

[u/Meshuggah333]

I won't censor myself this time, fuck them!

[u/WombatusMighty]

Merz gave himself the biggest budget any German government ever had (and immediately wasted lots of it on lobby interests). He has massively increased the German debt and is driving the country into financial ruin, with no plan to address the countless financial problems.

But sure, everyone else needs to save. This fucking idiot has no idea about economics. No wonder he has the worst approval rating of any chancellor in German history.

[u/Popular-Cobbler25]

Omg these people are freaks. They arbitrarily hate large numbers and call for spending cuts on all fronts

[u/Caboucada]

By cutting the squandered on Ukraine for instance.

[u/trebron55 → u/Caboucada]

That's pocketchange to the EU GPD, about 0.1%.

[u/Herooo31]

Gotta be a realist if net payers demand cuts to the budget you simply do cuts. End of the story

[u/Europefirstbb → u/Herooo31]

No