EU Budget: who pays most and who gets most
back?
With a population of a little over half
billion in 28 member states, still including the UK, the European Union as a
whole is the world’s second-largest economy only after the US. Some member states,
such as Germany, UK, France, or Italy has a large population and Gross Domestic
Product, or GDP, respectively ranked within top 10 in the world while small
states like Malta, Cyprus, or Estonia produces little and ranked below 100.
The EU budget, roughly €166 billion for the
year 2019, is mainly for investment to complement national budgets in the agreed
policies in the fields, such as agriculture, regional development, space,
trans-European networks, research, health, education, migration, border
protection, and humanitarian aid. Each member state pays its allocated
contribution and receives a budget for respective objectives. So, some countries
pay more and receive less while others pay less and receive more. No wonder
people become supportive of or skeptical about being a member state of the
union. If your tax is spent on a bike-sharing program in another country to
help curb greenhouse gas emissions, will you feel proud of it or betrayed by
the government?
Remember, many countries in the European Union fought with each other nearly to the end during WWII, but they are now cooperating
each other through talks and negotiations. Will such cooperative activity, if
not by the form of union, be tried in other regions, such as Eastern and Southeastern
Asia, or the Middle East?
Enjoy reading the articles and think about how
cooperative the region where you live could be in the future.
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