The German and Spanish Ministries of Public Works meet at Brussels which is the headquarters of the European Government.

The German Ministry addressing to the Spanish one, says:

"I’d like to see you in Berlin, so we can have lunch at my house"

Said and agreed, the Spanish Ministry flies to Berlin where he meets his German comrade. Both of them are driven to the Ministry’s house, and once there, the Spanish guy says:
"Wow! What a house you own. It is wonderful and how big. It should have cost to you a lot of money!"

"Well, not really" the German replies, and taken the Spanish fella to a balcony, says: "Do you see that highway over there. Well! Five percent of the construction costs came to my pocket, so, I could afford this house!"

"I cannot believe you did that. Well, I’ll be waiting for you in Madrid, so you can see my house there and have lunch".

So, sometime later the German Ministry of Public Works travels to Madrid where he meets his Spanish mate.

"How was the trip?" the Spanish asks.

"Oh, pretty good!" the German replies, and they continue to chat about more of that stupid stuff which is worthwhile in this cases (you know! the trip, the weather, the family and other blab like this.)

"Well, let’s go to my modest house" the Spanish says.

And when they arrived there, Oh! My God! What a house!

It was not a house but a real palace instead.

"The king of Spain would like to have one like this".

This is more or less the same what the German said, so, his Spanish fella took him by his arm to a nearby loggia and pointing with his finger, asked:

"Can you see any highway over there?"

"No! I cannot!" the German replied.

"That is. The money which was due to build that nonexistent highway was used to build this house. Not five percent. Ha! Ha! The whole amount of money so I could afford this house not the barn where you live. Five percent. Ha! Ha!" the Spanish said.