European Ideals

European idealism is never more on display than in the friendly and generous discussions that take place concerning spending money. The selflessness and community spirit shown by all participants is an example to us all. And so:

A row is brewing over the distribution of funds to the EU’s poorer regions, threatening to further hinder attempts at agreement over the already thorny issue of the EU budget from 2007-2013. The row threatens to pit new member states against some of the poorer, mainly Southern European "old member states".

So the nations in which the EU wished to guarantee democracy in, that have been the recipients of massive largesse, paid for by the long suffering taxpayers of the UK, Germany and the Netherlands among others, have decided not to extend the same chances to the newer members.

EU sources say that Spain has requested key changes to a draft working document on the budget to remove specific references to solidarity and the particular needs of the EU’s new member states when handing out EU cash to poorer regions.

So Spain, like all welfare recipients thinks that it has a god given right to the money it receives. The fact that It has become much richer and the other potential recipients of the cash are much poorer is obviously not important. Spain is widely regarded as a pro European country, whatever that means, largely because the populace is happy with cash flowing from the other states. Why is it only countries like Britain that have philosophical differences with the EU that are regarded as a problem, whilst normal selfishness is considered part of the game? Will Spain and Ireland among others still love the EU when they are net contributors? It seems very unlikely. In a comment that shows that most of our politicians live on another planet:

A senior German diplomat recently said that the negotiations were set to be harder than those over the Constitution.

So the money to be spent over the next few years is more important than the rest of eternity. That figures.