This week the European Commission approved a €20 billion German scheme to support companies active in all sectors in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The scheme was approved under the State aid Temporary Crisis Framework, adopted by the Commission on 23 March 2022, based on Article 107(3)(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’), recognising that the EU economy is experiencing a serious disturbance.
EU Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “With this up to €20 billion scheme, Germany will support companies across all sectors affected by the current crisis and the related sanctions. This is an important step to mitigate the economic impact of Putin’s war against Ukraine. We continue to stand with Ukrainians. At the same time, we continue working closely with Member States to ensure that national support measures can be put in place in a timely, coordinated and effective way, while protecting the level playing field in the Single Market.”
The taxpayer funded subsidy is in addition to the €25.6 billion granted to Germany under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), set up to help EU member states to recover from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two subsidies combined more than compensate the German taxpayer for the €28.6 billion the country paid in contributions to the EU in 2020, and dwarf the €17 billion paid in by the bloc’s third largest contributor, the United Kingdom, which is not even an EU member.
The UK’s contribution to the EU budget in 2020 exceeded the combined contributions of member states Ireland, Finland, Romania, Czechia, Portugal, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus and Malta.
Malta contributed a mere €116 million to EU coffers in 2020, receiving €2.25 billion in return, in what the country’s Prime Minister referred to as the “biggest allocation of EU funds.”
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