"If the Italians, who are on average richer, allow themselves a poor state, it is perfectly legitimate and it is their right, but they are not entitled to receive benefits that they have not financed. And the Germans, who are poorer, and can afford a richer state, are not obliged to pay twice", writes the great German intellectual and publicist Klaus-Rüdiger Mai in reference to the recent approval by the Bundestag of the law for the financing of the SURE, the plan for a European integration fund. For Klaus-Rüdiger Mai the silence of the mainstream media on the subject is very serious and is a sign of complicity. Klaus-Ruediger Mai from Tichys Einblick.
Although little has so far been said in the media, between Wednesday and Thursday the way was paved for the Europeanisation of the German unemployment insurance system. The crisis caused by the Coronavirus will be used as a pretext to deprive German taxpayers and workers covered by social insurance of their rights, to remove powers from the Bundestag and to overcome the final obstacles to funding states along the road to pooling debts.
Already approved by the Bundesrat, Wednesday in the Bundestag there was the first reading of the SURE Guarantee Act, after which the draft will pass to the committees. However, we do not expect a more in-depth and responsible discussion by the members of the committees, as the second and third readings and the passing of the bill have already been scheduled for Friday. In line with the major transformation announced by Angela Merkel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, this law represents a massive entry into the sphere of the fundamental rights of workers, their social security and that of their families.
The SURE guarantee law allows the EU to borrow up to EUR 100 billion on the financial markets to pay the redundancy fund in the different Member States. These funds will have to be distributed to certain EU Member States in the form of loans. The law does not specify the conditions under which these "loans" will be "granted", but stipulates that an EU guarantee of €25 billion is required for the issuance of the debt. A quarter of the guarantees will come from Germany for a value of around EUR 6.4 billion.
"This Act authorises the Federal Government to issue the relevant guarantee". Fully in Merkel's style, point C reads: "Alternatives: None". In addition, the law does not contain any regulations in the case of a very likely default in the repayment of the loans, the conditions of which are not even mentioned; finally, the German Government considers that 'the use by the Federal Republic of Germany of the guarantees issued is unlikely'. If the Federal Government had wanted to fulfil its obligation to avoid harm to citizens, it would at least have made an effort to take into account the level of the national debt of the States benefiting from the 'loans' which will be financed to a considerable extent by the Germans. Imagine a banker granting a loan to an already heavily indebted customer, which then goes on to burden the account of another customer, who instead has a better credit rating because the customer has been more thrifty.
In the text of the approved law, the government argues that no new financial commitments will be introduced for citizens, that there will be no additional costs to the economy, including small and medium-sized enterprises, and that no effect on price levels should be expected. The government of good weather, in any case, does not expect bad news.
It is not a good sign for the state of democracy if politicians do not even notice the euphemism "the finances of the European Union". After all, the debt is mainly financed by the taxpayers of the European Union countries who pay taxes. But what can you ever expect if even a leader of the SPD with his parliamentary allowance thinks he is supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, as if it is not the small and medium-sized enterprises that pay most of the taxes thanks to which Saskia Esken can live so comfortably.
The question then arises as to why the redundancy fund should be financed by the EU, since the allowance itself is not linked to the economic performance of the state and has nothing to do with the crisis caused by the Coronavirus. The unemployment benefit is an insurance benefit created to prevent unemployment in economic crises and to help workers and employers overcome the crisis.
In Germany, the Kurzarbeitergeld was introduced on 1 January 1957 by Article II of the Law amending and supplementing the Employment and Unemployment Insurance Act of 23 December 1956. Paragraph 130 states clearly there: 'The unemployment benefit is granted to employees subject to compulsory insurance through the social security funds for unemployment insurance in the private sector'. The German short-time working allowance is therefore not paid from the EU budget, nor from EU loans, nor from German tax revenue, but is part of the German unemployment insurance scheme, in which German employees and employers pay their contributions and is one of the largest social security contributions. If Italians, who are on average richer, allow themselves a poorer state, it is perfectly legitimate and it is their right, but they are not entitled to receive benefits that they have not financed. And the Germans, who are poorer, and can afford a richer state, are not obliged to pay twice. Italy, then, already has something similar to the instrument of the German Kurzarbeitergeld (unemployment insurance fund).
The law on guarantees for the European fund SURE will introduce a European allowance for part-time work based not on the principle of insurance, but on credit: loans that are basically already guaranteed by those who pay taxes and social security contributions that are already too high in themselves, and to whom the policy of zero interest rates aimed at financing the states, is in fact devaluing savings.
The introduction of the European unemployment benefit will act as a bridge to the launch of a European unemployment insurance scheme, which will eventually Europeanise the German unemployment insurance scheme. The level of German unemployment insurance benefits will therefore fall, despite the increase in contributions paid. The objective remains, however, to introduce a European unemployment insurance scheme, as the situation is currently favourable in order to deceive German citizens, by means of rapid legislation, who no longer even want to call it a procedure, on the pretext of solidarity and the crisis caused by the Coronavirus. The government can finally count on the complicity of a large part of the media to keep quiet about these and other projects.
The states that will be generously encouraged with these loans will also not even be obliged to spend the money exclusively on lay-off funds, but will be able to use it for "comparable measures and support measures for the health sector, especially for the protection of health in the workplace". And because, as we all know, it is all connected, there will be no limit to the imagination when it comes to how this EUR 100 billion can be spent. If you then consider that Ursula von der Leyen is already talking about spending billions of euros, you get the impression that Brussels has lost touch with reality and probably also lost track of what is happening. There are already EUR 750 billion on the table for some kind of bond, an increase in the EU budget, which will increase the German contribution by another paltry 43%, and here we have a loan to finance a European integration fund.
The only thing that is certain is that a new big party has already started and the financial industry is already in the mood to celebrate - because German taxpayers' money is already certain for them. The EU is working on the biggest redistribution programme in the history of mankind. And it reserves the right to set the rules.
According to the chronicles, however, the draft in the CDU/CSU parliamentary group remains controversial. Perhaps a miracle will happen in the end, and there will be enough MEPs ready to defend the interests of those who elected them to represent them.
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