the same has happened at the EU level, with structural funds going to some regions of the richer countries as well as to the poorer countries. I think it has helped make the structural funds much more politically viable overall, so I don't think it's a bad thing.

Thus, if a few hundred million go to Bavaria, the Bavarian politicians will be forced to defend the whole Solidarpakt not to lose that money.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes