Peter Stoney, an economist at Liverpool University, reckons that Merseyside was getting £200m ($326m) a year in state handouts even before it qualified in 1994 for the European Union's "Objective 1" programme to aid the EU's poorest regions.
Apart from the two big items of farm subsidies and cohesion funds, the remainder of the budget goes on development aid (the EU is the world's biggest donor), on immigration and security, on the eurocrats and administration, and on the EU's foreign policy and its fledgling global diplomatic service headed by Britain's Lady Ashton.
Yet it is Israel's hi-tech arsenal, funded by US aid, generous EU research grants and the flourishing multibillion arms trade, that rains down horror on civilians.
With the aid of EU money, efforts are being made to raise skills and qualifications, help companies improve their competitiveness, upgrade the country's infrastructure, and develop Portugal's poorest regions.
The aid the EU gives to the peace process can, and indeed must, be conditional upon continued moves towards peace.
Until a few years ago, subsidies state aids, in EU jargon seemed to be declining.
"It might be that Commonwealth countries, such as small and vulnerable middle-income countries, will be beneficiaries, but we cannot be sure, as aid through EU-pooled instruments might still be an option where it is effective," the report's authors said, adding that aid would decline by approximately $1.9bn because of sterling's devaluation.
In 2011, EU aid was 0.42% of the EU's GNI making it the world's most generous aid donor.
The company applied for £10m in EU aid to help it set up the east European operation, the Chronicle said, which spurred MPs to table a Commons motion objecting to "the use of UK taxpayers' money" for this purpose.
