EU Summit Collapses as Members Fail to Fill $81 Billion ‘Brexit-Size Hole’
EU wants more money for European Defense Fund, Green Deal
A summit of top European Union leaders failed on Friday after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other heads of government left the conference without an agreement on how to fill the hole created in the bloc’s budget by Britain’s exit. The leaders of 27 EU member states had gathered in Brussels to finalize the trillion-dollar-budget for the next seven years.
“Unfortunately we have observed that it is not possible to reach an agreement,” said Charles Michel, chief of the European Council, EU’s executive arm. “European budget is a very difficult topic and very difficult negotiation especially after Brexit and the gap it has left, between €60 and €75 billion,” he added.
The United Kingdom was one of the largest net contributors to the EU besides Germany and France. With the UK leaving the bloc on February 1, Brussels is struggling to fill the $81 billion (€75 billion) deficit in its post-Brexit budget.
Germany, France, and other wealthy European nations are expected to foot the bill for an ever expanding EU budget. “Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Austria would be financing 75% of all net payments to the EU,” Forbes magazine reported. Berlin might have to pay an additional $14 billion, taking its contribution to the 2012-27 budget to over €42 billion, German newspaper Rheinische Post disclosed recently.
Germany’s Deutsche Welle reported the details of the failed summit:
European Union leaders failed to agree on its new 7-year budget on Friday. A a result, a new summit will have to occur in the coming weeks.
The 27 leaders of all member states had spent two days in a standoff over the 2021-27 allowance, with a significant gap between countries that are net recipients of funds and the wealthier member states who are keen to rein in spending.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the difference between the member states was too big to compromise on while the EU Council President Charles Michel said: “We need more time.”
The new budget has a Brexit-sized hole to fill and some member states were unwilling to pay more for the bloc’s next spending proposals, worth around €1 trillion ($1.1 trillion).
Council President Michel added: “Unfortunately today, we have observed it was not not possible to reach an agreement.”
It was not clear exactly when a new round of talks would take place.
The so-called “Frugal Four” of Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, as well as a few other nations, believe the EU’s 2021-2027 budget, which is intended to finance ambitious climate change and digital economy policies, should amount to 1% of the bloc’s gross national income.
The EU wants billions of euros for its ambitious ‘Green Deal’ program to fight climate change. “The new European Commission wants to do more for climate and environmental protection with a ‘Green Deal’,” German Deutsche Welle reported in separate article.
In its 2021-27 budget, Brussels also needs money for ‘joint defense’ — a long-held EU dream of creating its own centralized army. The budget draft reportedly calls for €7 billion for the European Defense Fund. It is interesting to note EU’s growing military ambitions coincide with many of the EU member countries, including Germany and France, defaulting on their NATO-agreed 2 percent of GDP on defense.
With the rise of right-wing and anti-establishment parties across Europe, many of the net contributors find it difficult to justify signing fat checks towards financing a bloated EU bureaucracy. Austria’s Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz urged the EU to cut back on its budget in light of Brexit. “Now that we have a smaller union of 27 member states, we simply have to cut our coat according to our cloth. The responsible approach in this situation is to prioritise in the interest of our taxpayers,” Kurz wrote in an op-ed ahead of the EU summit.
The EU budget summit collapsed at a time when Brussels is trying to squeeze $50 billion as part of the Brexit ‘divorce settlement.’ Despite making huge financial demands, the EU is forcing the UK to subject its economy to laws and regulations set by Brussels in order to secure a trade deal with the bloc — a move opposed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “There is no need for a free trade agreement to involve accepting EU rules on competition policy, subsidies, social protection, the environment, or anything similar any more than the EU should be obliged to accept UK rules,” Johnson declared earlier this month.
[Cover image via YouTube]
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Comments
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Who would have thought?…..
???
LOL
Those Nazi/Communist/Socialists
SURE RUN OUT OF OTHER PEOPLES’ MONEY FAST
when you cut it off!!!!!
Jeff Taylor has some great commentary on the EU’s money woes.
Don’t cut EU budget says President Macron!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVQh3CP5dxo
Jeff Taylor says the EU has a $1 TRILLION dollar budget…….
Excuse me, $1 TRILLION Euro Budget.
You mean Britain was paying far more money into the EU than they were getting back in services?
Gosh, if only somebody had known about this earlier.
The problem with using other people’s money is:
1. you space runs out of “other people”
2. “other people” run out of your space
Maybe if they didn’t import so many moochers, they wouldn’t need more looters.
Perhaps the EU should contact the expert on Socialistic policies, Bernie Sanders, for some advice on growing money trees.
A huge part of the problem is the EU and its extravagant life style type spending.
One example is that every year they move EVERYONE from Brussels to Strasburg and then back again for the hell of it (well, ok…they will have a “very good” reason for the move).
The EU could also try something new and live within its means?
Why you gotta be such a fascist, you fascist!
If certain EU countries aren’t meeting their NATO commitment, maybe it’s time to dissolve NATO. Let the EU fund their own protection scheme.
I believe if Trump wins he will dissolve NATO by taking America out of it
The EU can use what little is left to supply the EU soldier, one hanky and a pair of Gucci boots size 7.
$81 billion (€75 billion)
remember when US dollar was worth more than EU dollar and the British pound?
I do. although its been a bit since lb and dollar were fairly equal, iirc was mid 80’s when I joined army timeframe.
When was the dollar ever wprth more than the English pound? In my living, the pound has gone from $2.80 down to where it is today.
For that matter, the CDN$ was US$1.06 or so when i was in Junior High.
in the late 90s, a Canadian dollar was worth about 75 cents American. I remember cuz that was the price of a small samosa in Toronto somewhere. (ya gotta remember the important things – like good Indian food!)
You can’t leave and take all that money with you. Gasp, you can!
They had 4 years to prepare for this and didn’t get a plan in place? Guess they spent all their effort on running poor negotiations with the UK.
4 years!
They had 4 years to prepare for this and didn’t get a plan in place? Guess they spent all their effort on running poor negotiations with the UK.
4 years!
Tick… tick… tick…
Watch the defense budget commitments go down the drain.
So they want their $50B “divorce settlement”? Better get the best divorce attorney in the world.
Simple. Just raise taxes on their population. What’s the big deal?
What a bunch of totalitarian, money-grubbing, lying weasels. Brexit is looking more brilliant by the day.
The EU should grab the bull by the horns. It is not one economic union but two disparate economic zones, and perhaps three: the wealthy north, the struggling south, and (perhaps) the emerging east.
Perhaps the EU should have two or three currencies and economic policies, not one, one for each zone. Push the south towards cheap labor and growth, push the east towards growth and tech development, and let the north indulge climate regulation and social welfare. The EU governing councils could then work to reconcile differences between the two (three) and let each zone develop.
That would require political and intellectual flexibility and an understanding of true diversity. In other words, not going to happen.
“joint defense”…that’s funny. The only way European armies would ever have a chance of fighting together is under an American general within NATO. Take away US leadership and a French army unit will never take orders from a German commander, or the reverse. That is one of the few absolutes in life, along with death and taxes. You can bank in it. It’ll never happen.
By Joint Defense, she means an EU army run by the Germans with token French involvement. Staffed by the rest, but positioned to make use of old regional resentments. Troops will be stationed in districts (once known as countries) different from their homes, preferably in districts they hate.
That’s an absolute Given!
Cry me a frickin’ river.
Cue Merkel “Saya Greece, ya know that bailout we promised???…. austerity is good for the soul. …Work is um Freedom.”
As Mrs thatcher said…..
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
How much longer will the EU exist?
Heh. I mentioned how the EU would miss the UK far more than the UK would miss the EU on some other site. Was laughed at by the reliable idiots.
I’ve said the same thing. The EU needs the UK far more than the UK needs the EU. And have been pointed at and told to shut up as I don’t know what I’m talking about. Looks like we might have been right.
Last month there were reports published about how the UK’s trade with the EU mainland had actually declined a great bit since joining the EU.
The EU’s dwindling importance to UK trade in three charts
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11700443/The-EUs-dwindling-importance-to-UK-trade-in-three-charts.html
Starve the Beast!
Whatever your opinion of Steve Bannon, he nails it about what the EU leaders (and other elitist world leaders) are all about.
Steve Bannon | Full Address and Q&A | Oxford Union
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AtOw-xyMo8
If the EU can’t manage a budget what makes them think they can “manage” the climate or a standing army with soldiers from 20+ disparate cultures?
Watching this play out further establishes “Yes, Minister” as the greatest political show of all time, and I’m talking about the future as well.