Professor Edgar Morgenroth:

They have increased but they have not reached the levels of the west. There is a continued heavy subsidisation of east Germany and transfers from the richer federal states to the east German states. In fact, Berlin was merged - east and west - and the state of Berlin is constantly teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. There are structural issues that persist, and that is the point I have been trying to make. The evidence we have from regional development over many decades is not one of convergence and poor regions suddenly becoming quite rich. We do not really see that. We tend to see poorer regions staying poorer.