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Germans! Stop being ripped off!
By Daniel Hannan
(photo) 
Or, as we Old Brussels Hands say: “Hört auf euch ausnehmen zu lassen!”
No country does as badly out of the EU as Germany. It pays more into the system than anyone
else, and has the lowest per capita representation in the Brussels
institutions. The fiscal transfers made by German taxpayers to French farmers under the terms of the Common Agricultural Policy go beyond anything envisaged by Clemenceau when he demanded war reparations at Versailles. The Cohesion Fund, under which Mediterranean states got hand-outs in advance of the launch of the
euro, was underwritten by the German treasury. It was only natural that, when Greece
collapsed, the other euro-zone countries should look to the Angela Merkel for yet another
cheque.
I have blogged before that Germans resemble us in temperament. They are a patient people, but there comes a point when their patience runs out, and they appear to be reaching that point
now. A poll published in France yesterday shows that, while the idea of a euro-zone bail-out is supported by 53 per cent of French
voters, 55 per cent of Spaniards and 67 per cent of Italians, only 24 per cent of Germans back the
idea.
Of course, Germans won’t get a direct say on the bail-out, any more than they did on joining the
euro. The German constitution forbids referendums, having been more or less explicitly designed to shield politicians from public
opinion. Those politicians, raised on the nostrums of the immediate post-war
period, take it as axiomatic that the only alternative to European integration is ethnic
conflict. Their generosity with their taxpaxpayers’ money rests on an unspoken sense of historical
responsibility. But, to be effective, that sense has to remain unspoken. Once verbalised – “if we don’t cover the debts of profligate
governments, the Second World War might start again” – its absurdity becomes immediately
apparent. A German Christian Democrat once came at me with precisely this argument after I had opposed the bail-outs in the
chamber. When the words were out, even he realised how silly they sounded.
The Greek deal represents the end of Germany’s unquestioning Europeanism. Mrs Merkel saw no reason to keep the IMF out simply to humour the
Euro-nationalists. And, while she has opened her taxpayers to a measure of
liability, it won’t ever happen again. Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote that the mood in Germany was
turning: “The old incantations – the assertion, above all, that Europe is an antidote to aggressive nationalism – have lost their power.
The Euro-shamans still chant them, but there is less and less response.
The magic is fading. The dream is dissipating.”
So it would seem. Presented with the proposition that they should raise their retirement age so that Greeks wouldn’t have to raise
theirs, Germans have responded as any other people would. Not before time.
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