Think of it as an investment. The rest of the EU also benefits from their hard work, and economic prosperity. Other countries in the EU have also enjoyed economic growth and support over the years.

I'm old enough to remember internal borders with passport checks in Europe, before the wall fell and Poland was still on the other side of that. Nice to see them moving on from that.

Thanks to the EU free movement of people, I've now studied, worked and lived in four different countries. I know people all over Europe. I currently live in Germany. Germany benefits a lot from the EU. Yes it costs money. But there's trade, access to skilled labour, etc. as well. And if you look at Poland, it's what sits between Germany and Belarus & Ukraine. So, there's a strategic relevance as well. Poland doing fine is good for everyone else in the EU.

They're also the 3rd smallest net recipient of EU funds per capita:

https://i.imgur.com/VlRkDMy.png

Yes, this is how European social welfare works. And it is fantastic! Because the entirety of the EU is benefitting from it. Polish people have larger spending power, interesting and safe places to visit, etc.

This is not a "present" given to Poland. This is ensuring a better life for all Europeans.

You greatly overestimate its significance. The benefits are roughly 1% of the GDP. In 2023 Poland netted 8.2 bn€ [1]. The GDP was 751 bn€.

[1] https://www.pap.pl/en/news/poland-largest-recipient-eu-funds...

The EU is working as intended then.

Even without funds distributing EU cash, a common market works as a leveller this way and pulls up the poorer countries, because if you can live work and operate anywhere, people naturally pick the cheapest and easiest places to start a business serving the EU.

Spain and Portugal were the previous beneficiaries and everyone benefits really as jobs are created everywhere.

This is far better than a situation where larger economies dominate all others forever.

> I ment: „Poland gets money, Poland transforms it into more money”.

It's not trivial that this works. In Hungary we messed this up big time, hopefully it can get fixed now.

Since you seem to be implying causality here, I would assume that the other major beneficiaries have enjoyed a similar period of growth?

If there was a correlation you would see the same trend in Slovakia, Hungary and such

Not surprised to see "German" quotation marks in this petty complaint...

Since one of the major donors is Germany, I also like to consider this as reparations for WWII. I wish people in Poland would realize more how generous the EU has been to them.

Oh no, other countries have been in that position but it did not go well

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_rising_tide_lifts_all_boats

In 2023 they got a measly 10% (8.2Billion) of the GM and Chrysler bailout that will never be repaid ($85Billion)

The EU gets huge benefits for that investment, the CEO of GM gets a multi-milion dollar pay packet.

But be fair: Poland had to rebuild after WWII and 40+ years of communism.

When Western countries got money via the Marshal Plan:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

Poland had... "friendly" Soviets "supporting" their country for almost 44 years...

There are many countries in the EU that get many more funds per person than Poland and have much worse outcomes.

Some moron always show up with the "but it was all the EU subsidies" talking point, which is quite frankly part of racist tropes of eastern Europeans being dumb and worse than westerners. Could you imagine them accomplishing anything on their own? That's ridiculous. It's us, the western saviors, who did this with our penny subsidies!

Honestly, it’s not why their economy has grown. That money is just wasted on government projects? Has it hurt? No, but it is a small amount when it comes to the entire Polish economy.

> „Poland is the largest beneficiary of EU funds 2014-2020, with one in four euro going to Poland“

The lion share of this budget has been defrauded, fraud is only slightly less widespread than in Hungary. Piles of (only) documentation are produced by professionals then funds are funnelled to the families of local authorities. Honestly I'm confused, maybe that's indeed how EU funds are suppoused to work?

Countries don't mechanically convert inputs into development. There are many examples of countries with large capital inflows and/or strong capabilities that still fail to become strong economies. Corruption is one of the major frictions that prevents those resources from translating into broad economic success.

Well, Germany had their own EU funds when they raided other countries. Today, noone bats an eye?

At least Poland does it legally.

This is such a bad take. I'm impressed how often this gets parroted online.

Next time, please check how many Poles left Poland for western EU since they joined.

No one can deny EU funds have helped, but putting credits only there is pure misinformation. Take a look at what part of GDP are EU funds and what is the size per capita. Hard work and open market were actually the biggest contributors to the development of Poland.

It's important to understand the difference between handouts and investments with an expected ROI.

It's unfortunate that 0th order thinking jumps to this framing, it's one reason I always laugh when people talk about SpaceX taking 'government handouts' without these folks realizing the 100x ROI the government got out of their investment. All investments are 'hand outs' but not all 'hand outs' are investments.

Clear thinking at a large enough scale will prevent a populace from self destructing due to stupidity about this topic.

Well, fuck you. If you take a look at the GDP growth, Poland grew fastest BEFORE joining EU, and also during “populist” government, when much of EU funding was withheld for political reasons.

Polish economy grows despite EU membership, not because of it.

It's a first line buffer state against Putin.

Think of it as defense spending

Now compare that number to this number:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_material_losses_during_...

And don’t forget the Partitions and The Deluge, too.

Crazy how people just like to pretend that wealth acquired before 1950 somehow just appeared there naturally.