Europe's engine, caught in Brussels' financial trap

Germany is about to bear an immense financial burden: a contribution of around 450 billion euros to the next multiannual EU budget, which runs from 2028 to 2034, shows German economist Thomas Kolbe, in an analysis that was also published by the Zerohedge website.

This colossal sum is not just an accounting figure, but an expression of a deeply centralizing political project, of a Europe in which major decisions are concentrated in Brussels, and national states are gradually becoming simple tax-paying entities, says the cited source. The German economist points out that, in a context in which his country's economy is already showing clear signs of weakness - a shrinking job market, massive capital losses and an unprecedented series of bankruptcies - the idea that Berlin will be forced to contribute almost half a trillion euros in just seven years to the European budget raises fundamental questions about the sustainability of this direction. We note that Germany currently pays around 30 billion euros annually into the EU budget and receives only 14 billion back, which already means a net loss of 16 billion euros per year. Under the proposed new financial framework, this loss could increase more than threefold.

But beyond the numbers, the essence of the problem is political and ideological, argues Thomas Kolbe. The European Union, under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen, seems to have abandoned any fiscal prudence in favor of a supranational utopia financed by debt and redistribution, says the German economist. He points out that in the draft of the future European budget (2028-2034) 100 billion euros are already allocated to continue the proxy war in Ukraine, while 650 billion euros are reserved for maintaining a deeply artificial "green” economic model, maintained by subsidies and regulations. All of this huge spending is based on the assumption that Germany, the financial engine of Europe, will continue to pump money into the system regardless of the costs or consequences. Kolbe warns that this approach is not only economically unsustainable, but also lays the foundation for an authoritarian European Union, in which fundamental rights of member states, such as the right of veto, are about to be eliminated. In such a scenario, Germany would no longer be an equal partner in a common European project, but the main sponsor of a bureaucratic structure that unilaterally decides on the political and economic direction of the continent, says the German economist, who also argues that, by eliminating the veto right, the European Commission could mutualize national debts, monetize them through the European Central Bank, and mask everything with a digital euro, an unprecedented centralization scheme that would transform member states into executors without real decision-making power. What is truly alarming, Thomas Kolbe emphasizes, is the almost complicit silence of the German political and economic elite, which refuses to openly discuss the implications of this transformation. Chancellor Friedrich Merz, instead of calling for a reassessment of the current direction, joins the chorus of those who believe that the European Executive in Brussels automatically means true stability, although recent history shows that excessive centralization, fueled by debt and supported by ideological imposition, has never led to sustainable prosperity, but to crises of legitimacy and major social ruptures.

While the European Union operates in seven-year budget cycles, reality is knocking at the door and this shows that German taxpayers are called upon to finance not only Berlin's domestic policies, but also Brussels' expansionist dreams, Kolbe argues.

A reality in which a state already in economic decline becomes the main lifeline of an over-indebted political experiment, the German economist also shows, stating that if this dynamic is not challenged soon, Germany risks not only a deep economic crisis, but also the loss of its sovereignty in the face of a Europe in which nations are called upon to pay, but are no longer called upon to decide.

For the future of Europe and Germany, the stakes are not just budgetary. It is about the direction in which the entire European project is heading: one of free cooperation between nations or one of fiscal submission to a center increasingly distant from economic realities and the will of citizens.