Europe’s grandiose plans to become a financial power have one puncture: they do not know who will pay for all this and how, The Telegraph writes. According to the newspaper, the EU has been living on other people’s money for decades, but it is running out. In response to the June plan to increase the EU budget and help Ukraine, none of the member states has so far allocated a dime.
The EU has been increasing its spending over the past three years in an attempt to become the financial powerhouse its supporters have always wanted it to be, says The Daily Telegraph. But there’s a catch: the EU doesn’t seem to know who is going to pay for it all and how.
According to the British newspaper, fierce arguments over budget cuts erupted with renewed vigor among EU member states last week:
“The EU is starting to run out of other people’s money, and very soon this will become painfully obvious.”
Over the past two years, a €750 billion Recovery Fund has been set up with EU money to help member states recover from the pandemic; huge sums have gone to Europe to compete with the US on renewable energy; billions of euros have been used to help Ukraine and to index the salaries of European officials in line with inflation.
But sooner or later the funds were bound to run out, The Daily Telegraph writes. In June, the European Commission presented plans to increase the budget by €66 billion and also recalled the allocation of an additional €20 billion to help Ukraine. However, so far, none of the 27 countries has shown much willingness to allocate their funds.
As the publication explains, all the leading EU countries are themselves in a difficult financial situation. Thus, France’s credit rating was recently downgraded, while the country itself is struggling to balance its budget, Germany demonstrates the worst economic performance among all European countries, and Italy has returned to stagnation for the first time since 1999. It is noted that the only country that can afford to allocate additional funds is Poland, whose economy grew by 4.9% last year.
It will be very difficult to correct the situation, says The Daily Telegraph. All previous EU projects to improve the economy by introducing new taxes or raising them “have always been crushed by a wave of opposition.”
At the same time, experts say, “no one should have any doubts about the possible consequences for the rest of the continent.” If the commission cannot find the funds, it will have to drastically cut spending, reduce support for Ukraine and abandon its industrial strategy, The Daily Telegraph notes. The EU has been living on other people’s money for decades, “but as spending increases and it tries to further expand its influence, it is starting to run out.”
1,660 total views, 4 views today
