Euro Area

[Sarmatian]

So, barring some acceptable form of unification, Europeans will simply have to accept that some areas will be poorer than others.

Que?

Aren't some areas of US poorer than others?

[Furunculus]

Que?

Aren't some areas of US poorer than others?

indeed they are, but federal taxation is ~25% of GDP and the variation in spending levels between rich and poor states is ~5% of GDP, so a variation of roughly 20% of federal spending.

How big a budget would the EU need to be able to slosh around 5% of combined GDP into the poor regions (bearing in mind the current budget is only 1% and heavily constrained by CAP payments)?

The other point is that americans accept this, they are all american, whereas we are rapidly finding out just how german the germans are, and finnish the finns are, when it comes to firehosing cash at nations they consider to be essentially delinquent!

This 'sloshing' occurs in the form of:
1. national pay-bargaining which benefits poorer regions (teachers, nurses, etc)
2. national social benefits more generous than poorer regions could afford alone (eg.housing benefit in glasgow)
3. targeted regional development grants/discounts to encourage business growth (objective 1 EU/WEFO funds)
4. additional infrastructure spending to support the local economy (the mainland-skye bridge)
5. operating national services hubs from depressed regions to boost wages (DVLA in swansea, etc)