Every year, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) audits the revenue and expenditure of the EU budget and delivers its opinion on the extent to which the annual accounts are reliable, and income and spending comply with the relevant rules and regulations.
EU governments were allowed to water down targets in their post-Covid pandemic recovery plans after they had already asked Brussels for the money, the ECA said in its annual report on the 2025 EU budget.
Of 20 milestones and targets the auditors examined, 13 were amended after the member state had already submitted its payment request. In nine of those cases, the change itself was requested after the payment application had already been made. The revised targets were “aligned with actual achieved outputs, which made the payment possible,” the auditors’ report says.
The findings on spending were more damning. The auditors estimate that the error rate in EU spending rose to 3.8%, from 3.6% in 2024. Given the significant and widespread nature of the errors identified, the auditors issued an adverse opinion on EU budget expenditure for the seventh consecutive year. Speaking to the European Parliament, ECA President Tony Murphy described the errors as “significant and widespread.”
Errors are not necessarily a measure of fraud, but whether money was used in compliance with EU rules. The largest source of errors was the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), from the declaration of ineligible land to the incorrect calculation of payment entitlements.
