TAE: We have better proposals for European Covid-19 aid!

European Taxpayers’ Association (TAE) criticises European Recovery Fund

We, the Taxpayers’ Association of Europe (TAE), are highly sceptical of the Franco-German proposals for mutual COVID-19 aid in the form of a €500 billion European Recovery Fund. The main reasons are as follows:

• Firstly, the EU Member States have already agreed on an emergency aid programme with a total budget of 540 billion euros, of which not a single euro has yet been paid out. “These funds should be used up first before any further taxpayers’ money is made available,” emphasises Rolf von Hohenhau, President of the TAE.
• Furthermore, these plans for a recovery fund force the EU budget into long-term debt, which is prohibited under European law.

Conclusion and proposed solution:

The European Association rejects debt-financed COVID-19 aid, particularly as a large proportion of the aid is apparently to be allocated to crisis-hit countries in the form of non-repayable grants. We therefore urge the European Commission to present better plans and financing proposals for the European Recovery Fund as soon as possible. In this context, we would like to point out that countries such as Spain and Italy could also be supported in a more targeted manner by clearly prioritising the various EU funding streams within the framework of regular EU budget financing, subject to a fixed time limit.

The ideas and proposals put forward by the Taxpayers Association of Europe (TAE) are worth considering, particularly with regard to how, from the taxpayer’s perspective, action could be taken to provide rapid and sustainable assistance and mitigate the impact of the coronavirus crisis without taxpayers having to bear the costs.

Download link:
https://www.taxpayers-europe.org/images/pdf/TAE_EU_Expenditure_to_deal_with_the_Corona_economic_crisis_July_31_2020_EN.pdf