TAE on the occasion of Dragi's Strategy Paper: The EU does not need a planned economy! Hands off shared debts!

In a strategy paper on the EU's competitiveness, Mario Draghi calls for a new debt budget of at least 750 to 800 billion Euros annually. However, he does not say how, to whom and based on which key this money should be distributed. It also remains unclear how this will then be refinanced by the member states or the EU. This makes all the good and correct proposals in his paper obsolete.

The President of the Taxpayers Association of Europe (TAE), Michael Jäger, believes that these new EU debt plans are an absolute no-go. Ultimately, taxpayers will have to foot the bill through new or higher taxes.

Jäger states: “We don’t need a centrally controlled and debt-financed economic policy from the EU. That would be the end of the market economy. Temporary and limited government intervention is only justified in times of crisis. Under no circumstances can and should it become a permanent task. As attractive as the prospect of subsidies for companies may sound, it is still wrong. Because in the end it is always the market and consumers and not the government that decide where to invest successfully and sustainably.”

Brussels/Munich, September 10, 2024