Cohesion funds, which pass through Portugal, will be “diverted” if more countries join the European Union.
Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
These nine countries form the list of candidates for membership of the European Union (EU). Some started trying recently (Georgia, last year), others 37 years ago (Türkiye).
If these countries do enter, the EU budget will changeas is logical. AND Portugal will be one of the affected countries.
The Union budget, which is R$1,111 billion, would become R$1,356 billion.
The Bruegel think tank created a study with one focus: what would happen to cohesion funds after enlargement.
Cohesion funds are the money that less developed regions in the EU receive, to bring themselves closer to richer regions.
Portugal is in this group, alongside (of course) Spain, Italy and Greece, as well as Eastern European countries.
With new members – and poorer – These countries would go from being less developed to “transition regions”. That is, they would receive less funds of cohesion, because the new members would occupy the positions of less developed countries.
Italy and Spain would lose almost 9 billion euros; then appears Portugal (-4 billion euros); then Hungary and Romania (-2 billion euros each).
When looking at the map shared by , we notice that North and Center of Portugal would continue as “less developed regions” – but the South no. The South of Portugal would become a “region in transition”; would have less money from cohesion funds.
But the same analysis presents another perspective: an EU with 36 countries impulsive a economy from the current 27 – especially in exports and foreign direct investment.
“Foreign direct investment flows from Western European countries to Central and Eastern European countries that joined the EU between 2004 and 2013 have proven profitable and this trend is expected to continue with the nine new members,” explains Bruegel.
And another likely advantage: more manpower, coming from these new countries (and at a time when there is a labor shortage in several European countries).
