As the largest net financier of the European Union, Germany provides almost a quarter of the funds for the budget. At the same time, the German government emphasizes that Germany also benefits more from the EU's internal market than any other member state, the German news agency "DPA" writes.

The German Economic Institute, which analyzed data from the European Commission, came to the conclusion that last year Germany paid significantly more to the European Union budget than it spent from it.

In 2023, Germany paid about €17,4 billion more into the EU budget than it received, making it the largest net contributor. The year before that, it gave 19,7 billion euros.

In second place is France, which last year paid almost nine billion euros more than it withdrew from the EU budget. Italy is in third place with a net contribution of around 4,5 billion euros.

The largest net recipient in 2023 – as in the previous year – was Poland with 8,2 billion euros.

Behind it are Romania with six billion euros and Hungary with 4,6 billion euros.

When looking at net payments per capita, the estimate shows that Ireland is at the top with €236. In Germany, payments amount to 206 euros per inhabitant.

The budget of the Union in 2023 amounts to 173,1 billion euros. Of these, 143,4 billion euros were spent on member countries.

In addition, there were funds from the European pandemic recovery fund of 66,1 billion euros, of which 64,6 billion euros were used by the members.