EU has long been a transfer union

At last Friday's meeting in Brussels, the heads of state and government of the 17 euro countries resolved to boost the euro bailout fund by several billions. Critics fear the EU will become a transfer union, but in fact it always has been one, writes the liberal conservative daily Die Presse: "When for example German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) says these days that despite the de facto enlargement of the euro bailout fund and despite the high liability of countries like Germany and Austria, the EU has not come any closer to being a transfer union, it's simply not true. ... The bailout fund will comprise 440 billion euros. That sounds like a lot of money. But in fact it's not at all unique. The EU is already redistributing 350 billion euros between 2007 and 2013 through its structural policy. With this mechanism money quite openly flows from richer regions to poorer ones. ... The Bavarian CSU's hue and cry that the EU has turned into a transfer union sounds all the more odd. The truth is it always has been one."

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