German EU love affair turns sour

Germans are becoming increasingly sceptical of the benefits about EU membership amid concerns that jobs are being lost to new member states.

A Eurobarometer poll shows that 64 per cent of Germans believe that the enlargement of the EU will mean the erosion of social standards and worsening economic conditions.

The poll also showed that 84 per cent of Germans believe that jobs will be lost as companies relocate to lower-cost countries such as neighbouring Poland.

And 50 per cent of those questioned said they believed further EU expansion would lead to more economic worries for Germany, while 59 per cent thought there should be a block on further expansion in order to protect jobs.

The findings, published in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, come just a day after
Chancellor Angela Merkel called for tough economic reforms to boost European growth.

And she said she would not shy away from taking tough decisions about Germany, in particular the need to shake Germans out of their culture of dependency on the state.

“If we want to be among the leaders in employment and growth…we have to open the windows, breathe deeply the fresh air and see opportunities rather than risks or hazards,” she told the world economic forum in Davos, Switzerland.

A shift in attitudes in what has always been one of the most pro-EU countries could spell more misery for Brussels after humiliating referendum defeats in France and the Netherlands last year.
 
A separate survey, of German chambers of industry and commerce, shows that 76 per cent of German business leaders believe that Brussels already interferes too much in domestic policy.

And Merkel’s plans to overhaul German labour market laws to bring them into line with those in other EU countries such as the UK are unlikely to be welcomed.

The survey, published in Die Welt, shows that just 9 per cent of entrepreneurs wanted a unified EU labour market, compared to 58 per cent in favour of pan-EU environmental laws and a harmonised tax system.

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