BERLIN - The European Union’s industrial heartlands, its urban regions and Germany are the biggest beneficiaries of the bloc’s single market, according to a study that highlights the economic and social inequalities plaguing the bloc.
A report by the Bertelsmann Foundation found that Germany, Europe’s largest economy, benefited most in absolute terms from the single market, earning an extra 86 billion euros a year because of it. The inequalities highlighted in the report are shaping EU politics ahead of this month’s European Parliament elections, in which some have called for a continent-wide minimum wage, while Italy, wrestling with low growth, has demanded the right to break European fiscal rules to finance tax cuts.
Introduced in 1992, the EU’s single market aimed to sweep away all tariffs or regulations that hinder trade between member states, giving Europe’s companies a giant home market that could rival that of the United States or Japan in size.
Germany tilts everything to it's favour in the EU.
Wow what a surprise. 😎