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EU Budget Will 'Cost Germany Dearly', Member States Are Being 'Overthrown' – AfD

© AP Photo / Jens MeyerBjoern Hoecke, chairman of the Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) in the German state of Thuringia, leaves after a press statement in Erfurt, central Germany, Monday, Feb. 13, 2017
Bjoern Hoecke, chairman of the Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) in the German state of Thuringia, leaves after a press statement in Erfurt, central Germany, Monday, Feb. 13, 2017 - Sputnik International
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The European Commission’s proposed post-Brexit EU budget has sparked concerns from a number of the bloc’s members, including Germany, with top officials from the ruling coalition stressing the need for fair “burden-sharing” and budget contributions from all member states.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party expressed its opposition to the proposed budget increase on Thursday, with Kay Gottschalk, the party’s deputy federal chairman and a member of the Bundestag warning that the European Commission’s planned budget is not in Germany’s interest.

“There is no democratic legitimacy for the renewed rip-off of the commission, which will again cost Germany dearly. The EU urgently needs to be streamlined and not pumped up. That's what the AfD stands for,” Deputy AfD Federal Chairman Kay Gottschalk was cited as saying on May 3 by an official party press release.

READ MORE: Smaller EU, Smaller Budget: Wealthy Member States Blasting Brussels Proposal

A man looks at at a placard of Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel, the top candidates of Germany's anti-immigration party Alternative fuer Deutschland AfD for the September 24 federal election, in Marxloh, a suburb of Duisburg which local media said is populated mostly with people of Turkish migrant background, Germany September 13, 2017 - Sputnik International
AfD Calls on German Government to Stop 'Making Workers Bleed' Via High Taxes
Mr. Gottschalk, who also serves as a member of the party’s finance committee, insisted that the budget should be reduced as opposed to being increased, and warned that EU member states are being “overthrown” and losing their sovereignty.

“The budgetary framework should be reduced by 11 percent, not increased by 11 percent. The money is best placed in the hands of individual states and not in a European super state,” the senior AfD official said.

“The individual states are being overthrown step-by-step and controlled by others. The hard-earned money of German taxpayers flows into the construction of other countries or nonsensical projects."

Although Germany is the largest net contributor to the union’s budget, other member states who are set to contribute more to the bloc after the UK’s exit also voiced their discontent, with Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands describing the proposals as “wrong” and “unacceptable.”

READ MORE: European Commission Proposes 2021-2027 Budget of Almost 1.3 Trillion Euros

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