EU budget: Who pays most in and who gets most back?

[Jana]

I don't think we should only look it like that picture above (or like on the left below). I think we should also look it like as showed on right below. Putting those together will give a real picture.

So, Croatia receives by far the least per capita out of all former communist member states, and it is second poorest in Union. Hungary recives the most per capita.

So ironic

One being obedient servant of Brussels for nothing while other is showing middle finger to the EU while milking it's money.

[Not a Cop]

In 2017, Germany, with a net contribution of €12.8bn, was the largest contributor, followed by the UK, with €7.43bn. Poland was the biggest net recipient of the EU budget (getting more back than it contributed in the first place), followed by Greece, Romania, Hungary and Portugal.

I have never understood why rich countries like Germany, UK, France, Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands, etc., give so much money to poor countries. In exchange for that money, the largest contributors only receive contempt and insults in return.

Germany gets a highly undervalued currency which greatly helps it's export-based economy.

[MinervaItalica]

Germany benefits from export surpluses.

[Insuperable]

So, Croatia receives by far the least per capita out of all former communist member states, and it is second poorest in Union. Hungary recives the most per capita.

So ironic

One being obedient servant of Brussels for nothing while other is showing middle finger to the EU while milking it's money.

That is because Croats are stupid and don't know how to draw money from the EU. Lousy projects. Plus Croats only know how to be obedient servants and nobody respects servants.

[Jana]

That is because Croats are stupid and don't know how to draw money from the EU. Lousy projects.

Yup. And at same time licking balls of Eurocrats. While Orban does what he wants and has capable administration to get EU funding as much as they can

We are misery.

[Tommie]

EU budget doesn't even go to Romanian citizens, but to those corrupt, incompetent pigs they call themselves politicians for their own personal, greedy, selfish interests. Personally, I still think a revolution should take place instead of those hippie protests Romanians keep doing to stand against corruption, if we want things to truly change.

[Universe]

EU budget doesn't even go to Romanian citizens, but to those corrupt, incompetent pigs they call themselves politicians for their own personal, greedy, selfish interests. Personally, I still think a revolution should take place instead of those hippie protests Romanians keep doing to stand against corruption, if we want things to truly change.

Same here.

[ixulescu]

I have never understood why rich countries like Germany, UK, France, Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands, etc., give so much money to poor countries. In exchange for that money, the largest contributors only receive contempt and insults in return.

You're a smart guy, you should go further than the first layer of interpretation.

Yes, Germany is the largest net contributor to the EU budget, but German companies are also the most frequent winners on projects financed with EU money. For instance, in Romania, all major infrastructure projects financed with EU money (partly with EU money - this is important) have always winners from 4 countries: Germany, France, Italy or Spain. Notice that UK is missing, but also, more importantly, Romanian companies are not on the list either. Romanian companies, at most, will subcontract in these projects, despite Romanian budget paying half the cost on average. You can bet the situation is the same in all other Eastern Euro countries in the EU (except perhaps the Baltics, which have a somewhat different financing structure).

In other words, it's impossible to assess who's the net contributor here. The larger picture is far more important. All this effort is meant to create a large common European market. This goal is fundamental, really primal survival, unless you want the European economy to be swallowed by China and India.

[Finnish Swede]

Yup. And at same time licking balls of Eurocrats. While Orban does what he wants and has capable administration to get EU funding as much as they can

We are misery.

EU will first threaten (which it is doing right now) and then it starts to cut down the money flows into Hungary, Poland, Czech, Slovakia ... if those country will not follow ''EU-norms''. How/then they do that .... all EU-decisions ... thanks to huge bureaucracy ... takes too much time.

[Hyoga7]

I have never understood why rich countries like Germany, UK, France, Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands, etc., give so much money to poor countries. In exchange for that money, the largest contributors only receive contempt and insults in return.

It is called "debt slavery". You give "free money" or a very low rates to people, you offer the Southern elites a super strong currency called the Euro, you take away the ability of Southern countries to control their exchange rate and interest rate, you install the printing presses of the ECB in Frankfurt et voilà Europe is controlled without a single shot being fired.
The Euro is a straight jacket, a shackle, an anchor, whatever you want to call it, that has doomed Southern Europe to debt slavery. They cannot devalue their currency, their economies stagnate, they must pay interest on the "free money", their young people have to leave the countries...