Study: Eastern Germany benefits more from EU funding

EU funding focused on university locations

According to Joachim Ragnitz, Deputy Director of the Ifo Institute in Dresden, EU funding has noticeably strengthened Germany's structurally weak regions. "Our calculations show that one euro of EU funding leads to two euros of additional gross domestic product (GDP) in the long term," said the economic expert. Spending on research, knowledge transfer and innovation is particularly effective. According to the ifo Institute's calculations, the share of GDP accounted for by projects co-financed with EU funds in eastern Germany was around 0.23 percent.

According to the researchers, funding in the east was particularly concentrated on economically stronger cities, which still lag far behind western German centers in an east-west comparison. According to the study, around 39 percent of ERDF investment went towards research and innovation. Dozens of projects at eastern German universities were strengthened here - for example at Ilmenau University of Technology, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and Dresden University of Technology.