What do you mean never prospered? They may not have gotten to the top of the GDP per capita list, but Portugal is way more prosperous now than in 1986. I don't know about Greece.

But, yes, spending EU moneys in the right way is very important. Apparently the Czech republic has gotten a warning from the EU that they are not proposing enough projects to take advantage of EU funds and as a result might be allocated less in the future.

I think your argument that policy matters (which underlies most of your economics writing) is the right counterpoint to the neo-liberal assault on government.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman