Yep. A major issue was the ascension of then poorer CEE states in the 1990s and 2000s. This meant the bulk of EU Development Funds which used to go to Souther

Yep. A major issue was the ascension of then poorer CEE states in the 1990s and 2000s. This meant the bulk of EU Development Funds which used to go to Southern European countries like Portugal and Greece ended up getting diverted to countries like Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, etc. Unlike the CEE countries, Portugal's pre-EU era rulers (eg. Salazar, post-Revolution military junta, trade unions) did not invest in human capital to the same degree that CEE's pre-EU rulers did.