Summary

The agreement reached on the European Union financial perspectives for the 2007-2013 period has been presented by Zapatero as an ‘undeniable success’ for his government and a ‘marvellous outcome’ for Spain. Unfortunately, the reality is quite different. Spain has lost 43 billion of the 48 billion euros of the net balance it previously received from the EU (90%). Zapatero has accepted an agreement that is practically the same as the agreement he ruled out as being ‘unacceptable’ and ‘completely insufficient’ for Spain just a short time ago. Spain has become one of the main financial contributors to European expansion, with a burden far greater than that of other much richer countries.