It mostly funds projects:

> Approximately 94% of the EU budget funds programmes and projects both within member states and outside the EU. Less than 7% of the budget is used for administrative costs, and less than 3% is spent on EU civil servants' salaries.

From [0], see also [1]

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_the_European_Union#P...

[1]: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/about-parliament/en/organisat...

Negotiate trade agreements for the second largest market in the world. Make harmonised law and regulations and operate the courts associated. Finance infrastructure projects and the development of the poorest members. Manage various cooperation efforts between members in sector like education.

The budget is publicly available: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELE...

If you're interested, there's a fascinating book called Life of a European Mandarin that provides an insider view and manages to be entertainingly written despite being about the incredibly dry work the EU does. It gives a vivid glimpse into how hard and tedious it is to accomplish things that are obvious wins like harmonizing trivial differences in laws across borders. You would expect it to be the kind of book you have to force yourself to finish, and there are certainly moments like that, but overall it reads more like a guilty pleasure, and I highly recommend it. It gave me respect for that kind of work and also makes me very glad I chose a different profession.

The EU has a GDP of almost 20 Trillion, what kind of magnitudes of cash would you expect?

You mean The European Parlament, or Google?

if you would actually visit (not only) poorer parts of EU, you would find entire new roads built or repaired completely by EU funds. Parks created, playgrounds built, many many useful things for common population. Companies can apply for various funds ie to get more eco-friendly.

Its true that some of it gets stolen by local corruption but overall this is the source of many good things that folks can actually see around them, in places that wouldn't get any otherwise.