The old explanation for the EU: Was that it was Germany\'s industry buying access to Europe\'s market by paying for French agriculture. If you look at current events the defence of the CAP is centered around France.
The less prosperous countries did get a lot out of the EU too in development aid. Spain still gets a net transfer of about $EU 7-8 B / year. Ireland also got heaps.
It all worked happily until now when the differences between the member states were not that great and there were not too many states that wanted aid. Also the old EU was governable. With more states the whole thing needs to change though.
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