Overview
- Germany paid a net €13.1 billion into the EU last year, nearly triple France’s €4.8 billion, with Italy third at €1.6 billion.
- Net payments have fallen from €19.7 billion in 2022 and €17.4 billion in 2023, and IW says they could decline again in 2025 due to weak growth.
- Greece was the largest net recipient at €3.5 billion, followed by Poland (€2.9 billion) and Romania (€2.7 billion).
- Germany recorded the highest per-capita net payment at €157, while the European Commission has not issued comparable net-payer data since 2020, prompting transparency concerns.
- Including the NextGenerationEU fund, Austria, Sweden and Ireland bear the largest burdens at about 0.5% of GDP, with Germany ranking sixth at 0.35%.