Milking cow germany: 343 million

TV station in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Photo:

The fact that the Germans are governed more from Brussels than from Berlin and, in the Eurocrats’ view, are primarily overcrowded milking cows that have to be milked when it comes to feeding poorer EU countries – this is really nothing new. Current the discussion has once again flared up about exorbitant child benefit payments to other European countries: 343 million euros last year for children who do not live in Germany.

The EU Commission dismisses this as trivial – clearly, because most countries benefit from the warm money blessing.

343 million for 249,437 children who don’t live in Germany – that’s a fair amount. Almost ten times as much as in 2010, when “only” around 95,000 children were supported abroad. This additional income is particularly popular in Eastern and South Eastern Europe and it is not to be expected that parents who benefit from this benefit will not continue to use it.

German MEPs have now launched another initiative to finally bring child benefit payments abroad down to the level of their home country.

But the EU stubbornly sticks and the responsible social commissioner Marianne Thyssen (Belgium) even thinks that this happens after the

Rules of fairness that we all agreed to do in Europe ”.

Brussels, headquarters of the European Commission, also known as the Berlaymont House. Photo:

Fairness? Child benefit is “a tax relief for the expenses that the parents incur through the children”

Fairness. – To put this word in the mouth in the context is an absolute cheek. We want to state one thing right at the beginning: child benefit is not there for the children and accordingly they are not entitled to state aid. Rather, child benefit is "a tax relief for the expenses that the parents incur from the children." (Source: kindergeld.org).

So it is clear that in a country like Germany with a comparatively high cost of living, the child benefit must be correspondingly high in order to relieve the strain on the parents in their educational work: currently € 194 for the 1st and 2nd child, € 200 for the 3rd and 225 € from the 4th child.

Of course, parents from other European countries who live, work and pay taxes for their children living here also have this claim.

If these sums are also paid for children who live with their grandmother in Romania, Bulgaria or Poland, then there can be no question of fairness at all.

With the German child benefit, a Bulgarian family can easily be fed

To make that clear, we just have to look at a few sober numbers. For example Poland, where with approx. 103,000 most children are supported by the German taxpayer. Let’s take a fictional Polish family with us four Children, of whom the first two live in Germany, the two younger ones with grandma in Poland.

Then the Polish couple gets € 388 for children 1 and 2 and € 425 for children 3 and 4. Together they make € 813 – and that’s pretty much the average monthly income of a Polish family with two children. With this calculation, one should not forget that no child benefit is paid for the first child in Poland. (To clarify: The Polish state does not pay child benefit for the 1st child, the German one does for this Polish child.)

The picture becomes even more drastic if we use Bulgaria as a comparison. There, the average monthly income of a comparable family is just around € 400. Now let’s assume that the parents live and work here, but their five children have stayed at home.

Then this couple receives € 1,038 child benefit, which is more than two and a half times the average wages there. This means that an entire extended family can be fed with the low cost of living. Child benefit in Bulgaria is € 19 per child.

A group of students with their teachers in the Rila Monastery, Bulgaria, May 2017. Photo:

Let’s stick to fairness. With a statistical minimum income of € 2,000 and the significantly higher cost of living, German parents would have to receive five times the amount of child benefit in relation to the Bulgarian. There would be huge sums of money.

Therefore, fairness can only be spoken of if the same child benefit is paid for all children living here, regardless of their origin, but for everyone else, the rate that is usual in their home country applies.

It cannot be that large families in Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland or anywhere else are permanently supported by the German taxpayer.

What does the pension have to do with child benefit??

This story is scandalous enough, but Ms. Thyssen goes one step further by justifying and cheekily proclaiming the systematic exploitation of Germans dictated by the EU: "Otherwise, all German pensioners living in Spain would have to receive a lower pension. “- What an untenable comparison is that?

What does the pension have to do with child benefit? The German pensioner worked hard for a lifetime and earned an entitlement to statutory pension schemes over an average of 45 years.

He is entitled to this money without any ifs and buts and where he wants to spend his retirement with it is entirely up to him his Thing.

An EU Social Commissioner does not have to determine this. Quite apart from the fact that after a long working life, quite a few German pensioners would be happy to have as much money available every month as foreign parents can transfer to their home for child benefit for their children who have stayed at home.

No, Ms. Thyssen, there can be no question of “fairness” at all. As in many other places, it is only a matter of pulling the money out of the "rich" Germans.

When it comes to this, the Eurocrats are quick to demand solidarity. When it comes to German interests, "solidarity" in Brussels is more of a dirty word.

Brussels: Facade of the European Parliament office building. Photo: