Brussels has wasted enough
The EU must finally abolish the practice of throwing tonnes of member states' money out the window, Petra Steger, spokesperson of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) in charge of European policy, told the Austrian parliament's foreign affairs committee. On behalf of the right-wing party, the politician tabled a motion demanding that Austria draw a thick red line on further contributions to Ukraine in view of the billions of euros gifted to various third countries by members of the Brussels elite. Her motion was rejected by all parties, except the FPO.
Enough is enough, we say. Austria has paid enough! Our job is to represent the interests of Austrian taxpayers. So we are campaigning to put an end to this irresponsible policy at the expense of net contributor states and to suspend contributions until we are assured that our money is used in a contractual and responsible manner, and this huge waste is stopped,
– Ms Steger said after the meeting. The right-wing MEP said that the EU institutions had lost all common sense when it came to budgetary policy, with one budgetary excess following another in a totally irresponsible manner.
Austria will pay €3.6 billion in membership fees to Brussels this year, which includes contributions to the European Peace Facility to buy weapons for Ukraine, as well as money for the Turkey Refugee Facility.
As a result, Austrian citizens have been sending billions of euros to the EU institutions for years, and the EU institutions have been rewarding them with climate madness and the highest inflation since 1952. From the ban on internal combustion engines to absurd vaccine contracts and billions of euros in gifts to the Zelensky regime, the EU institutions are not acting in the interests of the Austrians. They are distributing the money they collect according to their ‘moral’ compass, instead of addressing the real concerns of Europeans,
– Petra Steger said, voicing sharp criticism at Brusselites.
Ukraine's EU accession would cause a catastrophe
Ukraine cannot join the European Union and the Austrian government should stand by this position tooth and nail, because the consequences of Ukraine’s accession would be very serious, FPO MEP Harald Vilimsky has said. The politician emphasized that Ukraine’s accession to the EU, which Brussels is now pushing through wittingly or unwittingly, should be rejected for a number of reasons, one of which is the dramatic impact it would have on the EU budget.
According to press reports, the EU commission is now modeling the consequences on the example of the current financial framework 2021-2027. According to this, Ukraine alone would receive €186 billion. If the six Western Balkan states plus Georgia and Moldova are included as additional accession countries, they would receive a total of €257 billion. Put simply, this means that Ukraine alone would need around 15 percent of the total EU budget,
– he said, adding that in the area of agricultural subsidies, too, the Ukrainians could claim almost a third of the budget. In addition, Ukraine should receive €61 billion from the EU’s cohesion fund, as its GDP per capita is on a par with Algeria or Sri Lanka, about one tenth of the EU average.
Citing a recent research by the Financial Times, the right-wing MEP also noted that the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta, for example, would no longer receive cohesion funds, as their GDP would already be too high at EU level, at least on paper.
Cover photo: In this photo released by the Ukrainian President's Press Service Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (right), is welcomed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on October 1, 2023. (Photo: MTI/EPA/Ukrainian President's Press Service)
