The Grand Duchy's catapulting into the international media through the incident of Johnson refusing to participate in the press conference due to a number of protesters booing has seen praise directed at Luxembourg, as well as fierce amounts of criticism. A British cabinet member has used the phrase 'go back to Luxembourg' as an insult, Brexiteer pundits have fiercely condemned the Luxembourgish prime minister's move, and, it appears, a number of Facebook posts have emerged, pointing out that Luxembourg is allegedly the biggest beneficiary of the EU.
Anti-European Union groups in the United Kingdom, notably UKIP and Brexit Party Facebook pages, have shared the same table with the title 'Who is benefitting the most as an EU Member State by 2022 (using 2018 figures)?'. Those who shared the table have associated Luxembourg's alleged position as top of the list - and getting back 3,304% of what it pays in - to discredit Bettel and explain why he 'humiliated' Johnson. Captions include phrases like 'Getting your country trashed and having to pay for the privilege!','You can see why Luxembourg are getting worried. See how much they'll stand to lose& by the way guess who is at the very bottom of this list? No prizes for guessing correctly!' and 'f you wondered why the PM of Luxembourg laid on an anti Brexit demo when the UK PM turned up, take a look at the list of who benefits the most from being in the EU. Then look at the bottom of the list.'.
Comments on the posts go further, with individual social media users writing 'Why why why, do people still want to remain in this corrupt club' and 'Luxembourg...tax haven...but with the biggest appetite for Eu cash. Juncker land is a joke, well done Boris for giving them two very large British fingers.'
The table, pitting Luxembourg as the EU's biggest beneficiary and the United Kingdom as the lowest, does well to stoke divisions and tensions, giving Brexit supporters more ammunition to decry the European Union and EU member states. However, the figures presented in the table are utterly false, as debunked by Full Fact, an independent UK-based factchecking charity. Full Fact dedicates its time to debunking misinformation spread on social media, particularly Facebook.
Globally, Full Fact has debunked the Facebook post as incorrect, pointing out that Luxembourg received roughly 105% of what it paid in to the EU budget in 2018, otherwise seen as getting 5% more back than what it paid in. In the same year, Full Fact highlighted, 16 other EU countries received more EU funding than Luxembourg, relative to the amount they paid in.
Additionally, Full Fact accounted for administration costs for EU institutions based in Luxembourg, which lay at €1.6 billion in 2018. Although this is not counted as spending on Luxembourg itself, if that figure had been incorporated, Luxembourg would receive 460% more than it contributes, which still falls short of the 3,304% mark. Finally, Full Fact highlighted that Eu budget figures for 2021 onwards have yet to be released. The charity also concluded that the order of countries on the Facebook table is fairly accurate with the obvious exception of Luxembourg.
Full Fact: Is Luxembourg the biggest beneficiary of the EU?
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