Frugal Four

The Frugal Four
Members of the Frugal Four after Germany's departure (shown in blue).
Members of the Frugal Four after Germany's departure (shown in blue).
Membership
Area
• Total
618,800 km2 (238,900 sq mi)
Population
• 2019 estimate
42,313,923
• Density
68.5/km2 (177.4/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)2019 estimate
• Total
$2.480 trillion[1]
• Per capita
$58,406
CurrencyEuro (€) Swedish Krona Danish Krone (EUR SEK DKK)

The Frugal Four is the nickname of an informal cooperation among like-minded fiscally conservative European countries, including Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. It partly evolved as a successor of the New Hanseatic League that was set up to make up for the loss of the like-minded United Kingdom in the European political arena after Brexit.[2] However, it was never founded as a transnational organisation like similar cooperations of countries in the European Union with shared interests.

Along with like-minded Germany, the Frugal Four advocate for EU budget rebates and tight fiscal policies in the eurozone governed by the Stability and Growth Pact, and generally advocate against a large distributive European budget and collective EU debt.[3] They are, however, not Eurosceptic.[4]

The Frugal Four experienced widespread media coverage throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.

  1. ^ "GDP, PPP (current international $) - Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden". The World Bank.
  2. ^ "The EU's new Hanseatic League picks its next Brussels battle". Financial Times. October 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  3. ^ "After Brexit, who will be the British of the EU?". Economist. 30 January 2020. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference FT2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).