THE FRUGAL FOUR AT A GLANCE

The Frugal Four are Austrian Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden

Debt to GDP Ratio (2019)

1. Sweden: 35.1%
2. Denmark: 33.2%
3. Netherlands: 48.6%
4. Austria 70.4%

Net Contribution to the EU Budget (2018 in million euros)

1. Netherlands: +4,877
2. Sweden: + 1,983
3. Austria + 1,534
4. Denmark: + 1,468

As a group their combined net contribution of 8,862 comes after Germany and ahead of France

Contribution to EU Budget (2018 in percentage)

1. Netherlands: 5.15%
2. Sweden: 2.82%
3. Austria 2.36%
4. Denmark 1.92%

For a combined 12.25%

Budget Surplus in 2019

1. Netherlands: 14 billion euros (1.7% of GDP)
2. Sweden: SEK 113 billion (0.89% of GDP)
3. Austria 1.4 billion euros
4. Denmark: DKK 84.9 billion (1.1% of GDP)

Their bet is on modernizing the EU budget and re-prioritizing on digitalization, research and climate change, allocating 25% to environmental policies, while cutting funds for other expenditures, such as the Common Agricultural Policy, which they feel bring less added value. Broadly speaking, they want to apply their guiding principle of efficient and results-driven management of public expenditure, which they preach domestically to the EU finances.