Wealthiest EU regions

The EU's statistics office, Eurostat, showed in a report on Thursday that seven capital regions were among the ten most prosperous areas in the bloc. The findings were based on 2011 figures related to the overall gross domestic product and GDP per capita accordingly.

Leading the table was the inner part of the British capital and financial hub London, with its GDP per capita reaching 321 percent of the bloc's average.

Runners-up were the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Brussels in Belgium and Hamburg in Germany, with the latter showing a GDP per capita of 202 percent of the average.

Relevant commuter flows

On the other end of the spectrum, regions in Bulgaria and Romania logged the lowest figures, with GDP per capita in Bulgaria's Severozapaden and Romania's Nord-Est areas reaching only a meager 29 percent of the EU average.

Eurostat noted the methodology used for the survey provided a measure of the total economic activity in a given region, but did not necessarily include a precise picture of the income ultimately available to private households there.

It also hastened to add that some regions were significantly influenced by commuter flows, with net commuter inflows pushing up production to levels that could not be achieved by the resident population on its own. Correspondingly, large commuter outflows were also likely to distort the figures.