The fact that German companies are primarily cooperating with economically prosperous regions, thereby further widening the gap in prosperity in the targeted countries, is not accidental, but political calculation. One example is the working group „Four Motors for Europe,“ founded in 1988, which, alongside the German federal state of Baden Wurttemberg, also includes the regions of Catalonia, Lombardy and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in France.