Enlarge image
The federal government - here Chancellor Scholz and Finance Minister Lindner - considers the idea of another debt-financed EU fund to be a "non-starter," according to Berlin
Photo: Florian Gaertner/photothek.de / imago images/photothek
Sanctions, arms deliveries, refugee aid: When it came to Ukraine, Europe has demonstrated an unusual level of unity in recent weeks.
"We are more united than ever," said Ursula von der Leyen, head of the commission.
And that, she announced pithy, will remain so.
Now there are first doubts about the harmony, because it's about money.
This Thursday, the EU heads of government want to meet for an informal summit in Versailles, and even before they have posed for the first group photo, there is a heated debate in the EU institutions about the costs of the Ukraine policy.
While media such as Le Monde and Bloomberg are reporting that the EU is considering a new debt program to finance military and energy spending, von der Leyen's people vehemently deny it.
That is at least misleading, according to their authority.
Mind games at lower levels within the Commission with its more than 30,000 employees cannot be ruled out.
On the boardroom floor, however, "there is no one involved with such plans," says one commission official.
In addition, there is no majority in sight among the 27 EU countries for another debt-financed development fund.
"That is not politically acceptable," said the official.
The pressure on the Commission is increasing
In Berlin and some other capitals, too, nobody wants to know anything about the weapons and energy fund.
"Joint liability in Europe through the issue of joint bonds is currently not on the agenda," said Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) on Monday at a joint appearance with his Dutch counterpart Sigrid Kaag, who is like-minded in this regard.
But the pressure on the Commission is increasing.
In recent days, the international community has rushed to announce aid to Ukraine, to take in refugees, to supply arms to the Kiev government and to cut off Russian energy imports.
This will further increase the prices for heating oil, petrol and gas, and governments in southern and eastern Europe in particular are demanding that the EU participate in new aid for households and companies in the EU countries that are particularly hard-pressed.
French President Emmanuel Macron, on the other hand, wants to spend more money on defense.
He has long been calling for the EU to provide additional funding along the lines of the Corona Fund in order to strengthen the continent's "strategic sovereignty".
So far, this primarily meant investments in new chip or battery factories.
Additional military spending is now being added.
The budget experts in the European Parliament also assume that the community needs more money.
The colorful coalition of spending politicians ranges from right to left.
Green finance expert Rasmus Andresen, for example, warns that “Europe is threatened with stagflation and rising unemployment figures”.
Therefore, there is much to be said for setting up another crisis pot.
"The challenges posed by the Ukraine war should be an opportunity to think about further developing the Corona Fund," he says.
His conservative colleague Markus Ferber, CDU, calls for "strong investments" in Europe's defense capabilities.
"The current financial resources will not be sufficient for this," he says.
"We will therefore need new sources of financing with which we can strengthen Europe's military sovereignty." Socialist budget politician Margarida Marques also believes that the current EU budget is "insufficient" to cushion the consequences of the Ukraine war.
The community could “rely on the measures with which Europe had already shown solidarity during the pandemic”.
The federal government speaks of a "pipe burst"
In addition to the reconstruction fund, this means above all the so-called Sure program, with which the EU is mitigating the consequences of Corona on the labor market.
According to this, Brussels can grant EU loans of 100 billion euros to affected member states to promote jobs.
According to Brussels, a similar program can now be launched to deal with the consequences of the energy crisis.
The federal government, on the other hand, considers the idea of another debt-financed EU fund to be a "non-starter," according to Berlin.
So far, the money from the current corona fund has not even come close to being paid out - neither the 338 billion euros in non-repayable grants nor the loans totaling 386 billion euros that have hardly been used so far.
From the German point of view, these funds could also be used to alleviate the consequences of war on the economy, now that the corona pandemic is slowly ebbing.
"It is currently not clear where the money is missing," says an EU diplomat.
In addition, the consequences of the Ukraine war are likely to hit not only the eastern EU states but also net contributors such as Italy and Germany.
Consequently, they too would have to receive money from the new fund.
The dispute over money will gain momentum if the war drags on and Europe tightens its sanctions again.
Many experts therefore expect that the heads of government will discuss the financial issue in Versailles but will not yet make a decision.
According to Brussels, the corona fund was also “discussed for months” before it was passed.