Corruption has many faces, it doesn't have to pipe all the money straight to 'Ndrangheta bank accounts. Rooting for sub-optimal solutions (overpriced, subpar qu

Corruption has many faces, it doesn't have to pipe all the money straight to 'Ndrangheta bank accounts. Rooting for sub-optimal solutions (overpriced, subpar quality but company from given state) compared to best one is frequent. Rooting for choices that favor ie large agricultural producers say from France/Spain/Italy, or some multinational based in Netherland and forcing restrictions on all member states is common too. Hardly the best choice for regular citizens who just always foot the extra bill. Heck, we have tons of legal lobbyists in Brusel, what do you think is their sole source of (very good) income? On national level, the more you go to the east, the more corrupt the state themselves are, ie previous government of Slovakia stepped down exactly due to too close ties to Italian mafia (and a murder of journalist+girlfriend who investigated this). Why Italian mafia you may ask? Well to pipe all the money coming from EU dotations into 'friendly' companies that deliver little and take a lot. Classic laundering of dirty money, this time done by state itself. All eastern states within EU have some non-trivial level of this. I wouldn't compare EU and US politics directly, both are corrupt in some aspect and not so much in others (ie US and its 'defensive' market used only very offensively, board members of those companies being former politicians and vice versa). Still better than 3rd world obviously, or places like former soviet republics (not sure if 2nd world countries is the proper term for those).