Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2016-09-13-Speech-2-159-000"
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"en.20160913.25.2-159-000"2
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"Mr President, what is the purpose of cohesion payments? It seems to me there isn’t really a moral case for them. There are parts of the world that are genuinely needy. There are many more deserving recipients of our aid than these territories within the European Union. If we have money to give away as development money, it should be targeted to Africa, Asia, and places where it will be useful. Or is it, then, that it is raising the standard of living in the recipient countries? Well if that worked, then Greece would be the wealthiest country in the European Union, having been the largest per capita recipient since 1981 of cohesion and structural funds.
The reality is, of course, this money goes to purchasing the loyalty of interest groups within the recipient countries, and this is relevant because as the UK negotiates its disengagement there is going to be a question of what we continue to pay into and what we do not. Obviously, if we’re going to continue to be part of any programmes or common structures, of course we are going pay our share of those. You will not find anyone arguing about that. But the idea of paying simply because somebody has a medium-level GDP? Not going to happen."@en1
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