[mschuster91]

> and you are supposed to say “thanks” and put up big signs saying “the EU paid for this”.

A lot of these projects, e.g. linking up people to shared sewer systems, are things countries should have done on their own decades ago without requiring money from somewhere else. It's a reminder to the population that without the money from the EU this project would likely not have happened at all and that the EU indeed improves their very own lives!

This is especially important in countries such as Croatia that have a high amount of "EU sceptics" who claim alllll the time "all Brussels does is prescribing us to teach our children LGBT culture and we get nothing!!!" (source: am half Croat, have heard this individual line far too often).

For large infrastructure projects aka the TEN (Trans European Networks), these usually give so much benefit to the economies of the countries involved that yes indeed you are supposed to say "thanks to the EU for organizing and coordinating this over multiple governments".

[jollybean]

"countries should have done on their own decades ago without requiring money from somewhere else."

You mean like Western European aid and investment from the US for reconstruction after the war?

Or the fact that most these countries were still under military occupation and 'should have done it' while the USSR was extracting their wealth?

Germans killed millions of Poles in living memory a few roads and bridges are owed.

[orwin]

> You mean like Western European aid and investment from the US for reconstruction after the war?

Yes, exactly:

"""

The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative passed in 1948 for foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $114 billion[1] in 2020[2]) in economic recovery programs to Western European economies after the end of World War II. Replacing an earlier proposal for a Morgenthau Plan, it operated for four years beginning on April 3, 1948.[3] The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-torn regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, improve European prosperity, and prevent the spread of communism.[4] The Marshall Plan required a reduction of interstate barriers, a dropping of many regulations, and encouraged an increase in productivity, as well as the adoption of modern business procedures.[5]

"""