European, of course!?

On July 1, 2020, Germany will once again serve as chair of the Council of the European Union since its previous turn thirteen years ago. It thus stands to follow that European politics have become a renewed focus of public debate in the country. Such discussions are continually characterized by the question of the nature of Germany’s responsibility in the European Union. Not infrequently does this question serve to allude to myths like that of the «Paymaster of Europe,» which ignores the immense economic benefits and the political advantages of the EU for Germany and looks past similarly high-paying contributions of other EU partners. The study presently compares these conjectural self-images with the actual outlook of German citizens and additionally examines citizens’ reported priorities for the German Presidency of the Council of the EU.

The long version of the study is available for download in German.