knusch wrote:this is just soooo wrong in so many ways....if u cant understand why germany has no interest in arms races or is in general reluctant to act out interventionist policies----> go read a history book
but since u point to the great contributions rumania is making for the security of europe, u do realize that all these "pussified western european" countries (very charming btw) actually transfer money to rumania (representing infact more than rumania's entire military budget)
SO YEAH, FEEL WELCOME'D!
ps: id like to point the attention to one of rapha's posts and the important lecture to learn from: MAKE AUSTRIA-HUNGARY GREAT AGAIN!!!!
Funny you say that, because my family is half Austrian and came to Romania as part of the Austro-Hungarian army that conquered the Northern part of Romania (Bucovina). So, yeah, make Austro-Hungaria great again. I might go back to my roots then.
No, no Western country transfers any money for Romania's defence. You can sleep tight, nobody's using any of your money to fund another NATO country's security. Each country is required by NATO to spend 2% of its GDP on
its own military. Don't listen to the news only, Trump doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about, those money don't leave any NATO country, they go to each country's military.
So maybe you can show me which money do those Western countries transfer to Romania. Maybe you mean EU funds? But everyone contributes to those, not just Western countries. And let's say you're right on one account: the bulk of EU budgetary contributions come from countries with the biggest GDP. But why do you think your country voted to support Romania's EU membership? Why do you think Germany did? The Netherlands? I'll tell you why, by using numbers.
In 2015 alone, foreign companies in Romania reported a turnover of 55 billion euros, out of which Austrian companies in Romania generated about 13 billion euros. That was reflected in an annual profit of 430 million euros, per one year alone. Now, let's look at how much did Austria contribute to the EU budget. Austria contributed 2.7bn euros to the EU budget in 2015, Romania contributed 1.4bn euros (figures taken from this financial report:
http://ec.europa.eu/budget/financialrep ... ex_en.html). The estimations that I have for 2015 show that Romania received about 6.4bn euros from the EU budget and contributed 1.45bn euros to the EU budget. So Romania netted about 4.9bn euros in 2015 from EU funds alone. Let me make it clear that these 4.9 billion euros come from a total of 28 EU Member states, not from one country alone. These funds are allocated under a budgetary heading called ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) mostly. If we ignore expenses with administration or liabilities like pensions, of the total expenditure for 2015 on transfer payments (EUR 112.4 billion) ERFD received about 35% (39.34bn euros).
Now, let's see how much was Austria's contribution to the ERDF per 2015. EU total expenditures per 2015: 155.9bn euros. Austria's contribution: 2.5bn (~1.6%). ERDF represented 35% of the total expenditure, which makes Austria's contribution to the ERDF in 2015 amount to 875m euros. This contribution was distributed to all the EU states which receive development funds. So each country could have received an equal share of 31.2 million euros from Austria. That's your share of contributions for each state in terms of development funding. Of course, in reality each country has different developmental needs, so it's likely that Poland got most of the money, followed by Lithuania, Hungary, Czech Republic etc. I don't have a precise breakdown of how much % each country received in 2015, but let's assume Romania got 100 millions from those 875 provided by Austria (though the sum is likely to be much lower, considering how many recipients there were). At the end of the same year, Austrian companies netted a profit of 430 million euros. In terms of trade, Austria exported worth of 2.54bn euros in Romania and imported worth of 1.41bn euros. Overall trade balance per 2015: +1.13bn euros.
The numbers are a lot bigger for Germany and the Netherlands.
So you see, you invest about a few tens of millions maybe and get hundreds of millions, because your companies own most of the oil processing and fuel distribution sector (OMV), construction materials sector (Wienerberger, JAF/Holver), residential construction (Strabag), banking sector (Erste Bank, Raiffeisen), auto distribution (Porsche), insurance (Generali Holding, Uniqa) etc etc etc.
That's why Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, France and other Western countries (well Austria is more Central-European, actually) supported Romania to become an EU member, because it was a good cow for you to milk, year after year. You get at least 5 times more profit than what you invest. Because labour is cheap, taxes are low and there's no extra tax on repatriation of profits, since capital is free to travel within the Common market.
So these Eastern European states are like a kid who gets a candy, but in exchange for that candy, he is required to work and produce at least 5 more candies. You're welcome, Austria! Don't mention it. Same for Germany, the Netherlands and other Western countries.