German firms get more than half EU state aid

This is an ok piece by Daniel Boffey. But it’s a crap headline. Makes you want to turn the page.

The piece is in response to Ursula Von Der Leyen’s speech in Brussels yesterday.

Much of the info should have been all over the papers throughout the last few weeks already.

Especially the last four paragraphs about the dispute over the coronavirus fund.

All the rhetoric coming out of the EU and business press has been for solidarity within the EU.

But allowing Germany to hand a trillion Euros to its firms while watching the other austerity hit economies only hand scraps to theirs means the EU is effectively picking winners.

That’s not solidarity – it’s exactly what the state aid rules are there to prevent.

And when Germany is asked about showing more support to its neighbours it says it is prepared to lend them money but not give out any grants.

So Germany is happy to make a profit lending to its neighbours – the ones it sells to and competes with – but not to actually help them.

It’s like an abusive partner that you can never escape.

Controlling, coercive, but always smiling and telling you that the problem is you.