That’s like saying that paying taxes is moral obligation. You joined a club and as a part of it you signed up to 6 years funding of that club. Now you want to pull out midway, which is fair, but you need to settle the bill for full period first. Sadly, there was no clause in the budget regarding pulling out halfway through and cash rebate.
I don’t know about rest of Europe but here in the Czech Republic the EU cohesion policy as well as agricultural funding is seen as deeply unpopular. Yes, we take the money as long as it is on the table, but we would grab the chance to change the system by the balls.
Or at least we would have done that a year ago. Now we are set to get a prime minister whose businesses are addicted to EU money.
You are mistaking Germans taking back seat in a car that is heading in the same direction with Germans softening up.