Tuesday, March 19, 2019

The Missing 45-Billion Euro on 29 March

Well, yes, there is this mystery that occurs with BREXIT on 29 March, with no deal.  There was this 'hole' which existed with the EU, and the British....to be friendly upon this 'divorce', had agreed to pay 45-billion Euro.  The EU needed that cash to avoid financial issues in their budget. 

If the money isn't there?

Oddly, this topic has rarely come up with German journalists.  I know....they've spent at least a hundred hours since 1 January....talking in public forums, and via the two public TV networks (ARD and ZDF)....covering everything except the missing money topic (if this were to occur).

So if you read through the various news outlets, the EU will have to find some way of getting this 45-billion, and it'll likely be split up among 28 remaining nations.  Naturally, the German contribution on this would likely go to the ten to twelve billion Euro range. 

Will this be a crisis issue in Germany?  No.  But I suspect that it'll make the Merkel coalition group (CDU-CSU-SPD) gather and get rather heated about the cuts required to find this missing money to hand the EU folks.

Would it be worth the hassle to give a prime 5-star BREXIT deal to the UK, to avoid the ten billion Euro in crisis money?  That's a funny question to ask.  If this were Helmet Kohl instead of Merkel, I would suggest that he'd tell the EU to shut up....write up a decent 3-star BREXIT deal, and avoid a no-treaty deal at all cost. 

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