Germany and EU Money

For the record, using 2017 numbers.....Germany shipped off 19.6 billion Euro.  That was their part of the EU 'tax'.  What they got back from the EU?  Roughly 11-billion Euro.  The rest went to cover the EU operations budget, salary and retirement for EU representatives, EU 'shows', and then the remainder goes to lesser unfortunate EU member states. 

So when you show up in Croatia, Portugal, or Greece....the odds are that the airport you flew into or the museum you spent half-a-day in....was financed or renovated with EU 'gifted' funds....that really came out of the German taxpayer.  It's in effect....redistribution of German money.

So it got brought up today....that as BREXIT occurs (I still suggest it might be a maybe on that deal)....without the UK folks.....the EU tax revenue bucket has to stay inflated.  The new sum of German money to make the budget work?  The suggestion is around 50 billion Euro.  What Germany will likely get back for funded projects?  Maybe in the range of 30 billion Euro. 

How does the gifted money going back to German fit into the German budget?  Well....it doesn't fit.

What happens is that cities and organizations go over to the EU and present their case, and they get a 'gift' for some fest, some renovation, or some public project.  A good example is Mainz and it's spring fest, where a lot of the funding for the big 'show'....is really EU 'gift' money, coming back to the city.

Some of these EU projects in Germany have value.  An example of this....a science study program where they are studying the way in which houses are built, and if you can add features to help the disabled or the older folks function better. 

There's another German project funded by the EU which has to do with healthy food choices, and finding ways to convince people to eat better. 

As for the question that you might be wondering about.....where the extra 20-odd billion Euro will come from in the German budget (to fill the UK 'hole')?  Well, they would have carved it up and spent it on science projects, renovation of public buildings, fests, or airport upgrades....but they are handing the money over to the EU to hand back, and look good in terms of a public relations image.  The same is true when they gifted the extra money over to the EU, which drifted back to airport projects in Slovakia, or building a museum in Greece....except it wasn't Germany paying for the project....it was the EU spending Germany's money to make that happen.

Confusing?  No.  It's just pretending that you really need the EU to distribute the money......even if you don't need them to distribute the money.