Ulrike
Schielke-Ziesing
EU
Unemployment Security
German
Bundestag, May 29, 2020, Plenarprotokoll 19/64, pp. 20468-20469
[Ulrike
Schielke-Ziesing is an Alternative für Deutschland Bundestag member from the
eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. She
is a pensions administrator and member of the Bundestag social security
committee. She here responds to the European Union’s proposed SURE (Support to
mitigate the risks of unemployment) program.]
Ursula von der Leyen cannot quite let go of her old office as
Defense Minister. The SURE program she has presented is, according to her
words, a second line of defense. I do not much hold with military concepts,
quite specifically not when it comes to the EU and social questions.
By means of the SURE program, loans up to 100 billion euros will be
extended to the member states. For solidarity and for the securing of the risks
of the EU, all member states shall at times voluntarily enter into a total
counter guarantee of at least 25 percent of the means. We thereby cross the
threshold to a debt union. For you, ladies and gentlemen of the government
coalition, it has been basically a matter of creating a super-national EU state
in which the national parliaments or courts shall not longer play a role, as we
could recently well observe in the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court
and, before all, in the reaction of Brussels thereto. Yet more EU harms Europe.
How then shall the means of the distinctive European social
systems be justly apportioned? In the end, the German taxpayer finances the unconditional Spanish
basic income. Like a prayer wheel, you indeed just repeat ever the same mantra:
It can only be good for Germany when it is good for Europe – but that is not right.
In the long run, it cannot be good for Germany if our taxpayers are to permanently
rescue Europe. That is the result of your European policy.
Why cannot the European neighbor countries maintain budget
discipline like Germany? How can you declare to our citizens, who with steady
discipline have saved and gone without, while the primarily southern EU
countries have not done it, that we must now rescue these? SURE shall certainly
be a credit program, secured by the guarantees of the EU states. Yet when these
cannot be paid back, a debt conversion would be possible. And who guarantees
that the debts will then not simply be remitted?
We in Germany have just now decided on a a supplementary budget of
a sum of 156 billion euros. An additional will follow to rescue our domestic
employees; since the reserves of the Federal Agency for Labor will no longer
suffice. Throughout our entire social security system, the contributions are
falling off. Next year at the latest, there will be required a massive,
additional supply from the Federal budget. Estimates of reduced tax revenues in
this year are around 40 billion euros at the federal level. It does not appear
much better for next year. It would thus be important to concentrate on our
employees, on our economy, on our budget, before saving the entire world.
When will you, as representatives of the people – I yet again
emphasize: As politicians elected by the German people – finally draw a line
and stop squeezing to the last drops of tax money our hard working people in
Germany? Germany is a global leader in duties and taxes.
Carsten Schneider
(SPD): What nonsense!
As of today, we have diverse European aid mechanisms, a great
portion of which are financed by Germany. To me, Germany appears to be the
lifeguard of Europe. No matter who, and for which reason, gets into trouble in
the water, the German taxpayer jumps in and saves the day. Yet what happens
when the lifeguard himself is drowning?
Precisely that could happen with this plan. We save countries
whose citizens are wealthier than we are. Aid for self-help in this situation
would be more effective. In a Europe of Vaterländer,
we must help our neighbors. Yet we should not do all work for them. The present
misery is of political origin and for that the governments of the member states
must answer, and not the German taxpayers.
Many thanks.
[Translated by Todd Martin]
