Annual EU funds come to 4.5 bln euros
Greece has been the recipient of the biggest amount of financial support among all European Union member states, as in the period from 2000 to 2015 the total inflow of cash from Brussels amounted to 71.8 billion euros, or about 4.5 billion euros per year on average.
According to data seen by Kathimerini, the amount of European subsidies and funds that this country has received is – in relation to the size of its economy – 35 percent higher than funding collected in the same period by Portugal. It is also 250 percent higher than the funding that Ireland has received and 320 percent above what Spain has been granted.
Therefore, every year the Greek state budget gets a boost from the European cash injections that corresponds on average to 2.36 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Through the latest community support frameworks (ESPA etc) and other similar European funding programs from the past, a multitude of projects have been financed in Greece, concerning works and basic operations of the state around the country. They range from infrastructures such as bridges and ports, to nurseries and police stations, to say nothing of the annual subsidies to agriculture that come to more than 2 billion euros.
