The eu is clearly more than just an order of liberal fantasy to what extent does it still overwhelmingly serve the interests of particular member states. The creditor countries which have large trade surpluses and supplied the so-called periphery with capital in the years running up to the crisis are beneficiaries of assistance that is skewed in their favor, he says. But i think one has to be quite clear here it's not quite clear whether these countries would have been better off outside of the euro zone according to Mr Schmitz.