[IN.REUTERS] German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has proposed the introduction of a special tax on gasoline in European Union...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
member states to finance refugee-related costs such as strengthening the continent's joint external borders.
Schaeuble's proposal drew criticism from members of his own conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), as well as from the Social Democrats (SPD), junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel
...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as
Mom...
's ruling coalition.
"I've said if the funds in the national budgets and the European budget are not sufficient, then let us agree for instance on collecting a levy on every litre of gasoline at a specific amount," Schaeuble told Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in an interview published on Saturday.
"We have to secure Schengen's external borders now. The solution of these problems must not founder due to a limitation of funds," the veteran politician said.
Asked if all EU countries should increase their payments to Brussels to finance joint refugee-related costs, Schaeuble said: "If someone is not willing to pay, I'm nonetheless prepared to do it. Then we'll build a coalition of the willing."
Schaeuble gave no details on how high the extra levy on gasoline should be and whether Brussels or the EU member states would be in charge of collecting it.