Each Portuguese “received” almost €216 from the EU

Lisbon: Portugal is among the 17 Member States that received more community funds than the money they contributed to the European Union (EU) budget in 2023.

According to a report by the Institute for the German Economy (IW), it was the eighth largest net beneficiary, with €2,227 million, a value that, divided by the population of around 10.6 million people, would give €215.94 per citizen. Germany continues to be the largest net contributor and Poland is the largest beneficiary.

As in the previous year, the largest net beneficiary was Poland, with a total of 8,154.20 million euros. A few billion behind are Romania (5,994.02 million euros) and Hungary (4,561.50 million euros).

Conversely, ten countries have a negative net balance between contributions and the money they received from Brussels, namely Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria and Sweden.

Germany (17,433.48 million euros) continues to be the largest net contributor to the European Union, ahead of France, which last year paid almost 8,957.14 million euros more than it received in return. Italy is in third place, with a net contribution of 4,504.37 million euros.

In terms of net payments per capita, the German institute’s calculations indicate that Ireland surpassed Germany, with 236.08 euros per person against 206.28 euros, while only Italy (76.35 euros) had a net contribution per person below 100 euros.

Among the 17 net beneficiaries, Estonia leads the way, a country where each citizen would receive 626.90 euros if European funds were distributed equitably, with Croatia (602.18 euros per person) and Latvia (601.67 euros) coming close to that figure.

In terms of both net per capita value and Gross National Income (GNI), Portugal ranks 12th: the 215.94 euros that would be distributed to each citizen in the country in 2023 correspond to 0.86% of GNI.