Berlin - Germany rejected on Thursday calls to contribute a greater sum to a European Union fiscal stimulus package for recession-hit economies, with a spokesman saying Berlin was doing enough already. Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said a 32-billion-euro (40-billion-dollar) programme of tax rebates, soft loans and handouts already approved by Berlin ought to be counted as part of the EU plan.
EU officials are drawing up the plan to be unveiled by the European Commission next Wednesday and submitted to EU leaders next month.
Briefing papers show the EU is to request all 27 EU nations to donate 1 per cent of gross domestic product, priming the economic pump with 130 billion euros to revive weak demand.
Wilhelm told reporters, "Nations that have already acted in recent weeks should not be punished for it, while those who have done nothing end up better off."
He said that the fiscal stimulus approved so far, to be paid for by Germany's municipal, state and federal governments, was pumping 1.3 per cent of GDP into the economy.
The briefing document on the EU fiscal stimulus proposals was obtained by Deutsche Presse-Agentur
