Regions & Cities 2018: A deep dive into the EU regional funds

Romania receiving structural funds," he said.
"A major error of the EU enlargement was thinking
that eastern European countries can be treated
like poor regions in western European countries,"
Fazekas noted.
At the same time, he added that there was no
other way to treat the new member states added
in 2004, 2007, and 2013. "It was politically
impossible to say: you eastern Europeans have
weaker institutions, so we have a different set
of rules than for the poor regions in northern
Sweden," he said.
But Fazekas pointed out that methodologies exist
for establishing whether a government can be
trusted with managing funds – not only the World
Bank has them, but so does the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development.
"It's not hard to come up with a methodology which
classifies countries in, say, three categories: you
can be trusted, you are in-between or you are
absolutely not trustworthy. I can guarantee you
Hungary would not pass".
But such a ranking of EU member states is
completely against the equal treatment member
states seek – and a political no-go zone.
How much money is being lost to fraud is
difficult to know
Photo: European Parliament
19 — REGIONS & CITIES 2018