Why you are subsidising people in most other EU countries
EU publishes “material welfare of households”
Latest figures show “Wide variation of consumption per capita across EU Member States”
On Wednesday when attention in the UK was focused on the Conservative leadership election, the EU published its latest figures on “Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) - a measure of material welfare of households”.
These figures show the large disparity between the consumption of goods and services per capita across the EU, with the UK coming in 5th place after Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and Denmark. Additional figures show a variation of 50% to 254% in GDP per capita. In effect, there is no ‘level playing field’ in the EU.
Brexit Facts4EU.org Summary
EU's latest consumption per person figures, by country
- UK is in 5th place for 'material welfare' after Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and Denmark
- 18 countries are below EU average
- Candidate countries to join EU are at just 44% of EU average
- The US consumer is 57% ahead of the EU consumer
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org - click to enlarge
What do these figures mean?
“Actual Individual Consumption consists of goods and services actually consumed by individuals, irrespective of whether these goods and services are purchased and paid for by households, by government, or by non-profit organisations. In international volume comparisons of consumption, AIC is often seen as the preferable measure, since it is not influenced by the fact that the organisation of certain important services consumed by households, like health and education services, differs a lot across countries.”
- EU official statistics agency, 19 Jun 2019
The silent transfer of wealth from UK taxpayers to the majority of EU countries
It has never been properly explained to the British people that they are, in effect, transferring their wealth to the peoples of the majority of EU countries.
As one of the few net contributors to the EU, the UK has been subsidising the development of roads, railways, social programmes, and all manner of other public expenditure in other EU countries.
The figures above show the disparity in the levels of consumption enjoyed by individuals in each country. The EU has rapidly been addressing this using massive fund transfers, in order to create a giant superstate, at a huge cost to the British taxpayer.
Things... can only get… worse
In our chart above we have included two non-EU elements.
1. EU candidate countries
A measure of the way in which the EU will drag down standards of living still further in the next few years is the figure for candidate and potential candidate countries. Their consumption levels are at just 44% of the EU average.
These countries include Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, and Bosnia & Herzegovina. The EU has not included Turkey and Kosovo in that average for candidate countries. All of these countries will be net takers from taxpayer-funded ‘EU money’. In essence, the UK’s bill will only increase if it stays in the EU.
2. The United States of America
As a comparison, we included the US in our chart. Its consumption per person is at a staggering 157% of the EU average.
Observations
The figures released by the EU this week are an indication of the many proofs we have researched and published over the last three years and more. They demonstrate the disparity in wealth across the EU and they help to explain why the UK taxpayer has been subsidising the EU for 45 years.
Our message to Remain MPs is simple: be honest. If you think the British people want to subsidise the infrastructure development of many poorer EU countries, debate it in Parliament and put it to the British people.
Remain MPs might also want to explain to the British people that several more poor (some of them very poor) countries are set to join the EU in the next ten years, all of whom would then be subsidised by the British taxpayer if the UK remained a member of the EU.
Isn't this foreign aid?
Readers may feel that the rather peculiar Rory Stewart, former leadership candidate and current Secretary of State for International Development, should be told that if we want to subsidise a swathe of EU countries, this might be better done out of the international aid budget, not via our contributions to the EU.
It would be interesting to see where Rory Stewart would then place these EU countries in his list of priorities. Would he give Poles preference over starving Africans? Somehow we doubt it.
Finally, we eventually found the above figures on sheet 107 out of 120 sheets in the Excel file on this subject which we downloaded from the EU’s official statistics agency, Eurostat. Delving down into the raw data is important. Trying to summarise this into an article which the public will read takes many more hours, but is just as important.
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[ Sources: Eurostat | EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sat 22 Jun 2019
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