Overview
- The European Court of Auditors published a 2025 audit this week that estimates a 3.8 percent error rate in EU spending, equal to about €6.7 billion that did not comply with rules.
- Reviewers flagged the Recovery and Resilience Facility as especially problematic, saying 9 of 37 payments did not meet agreed conditions and that some targets were lowered after the fact to allow payments.
- The most common failures were breaches of public procurement rules and funding of non‑eligible projects or costs, problems auditors link to complex rules and weak verification.
- Auditors found the Commission relied on member‑state controls without fully checking compliance in at least 40 cases, a practice the Court says increases fiscal risk.
- The report warns rising EU borrowing could push debt toward €1 trillion by 2027 and make debt service a growing share of the budget, which will sharpen disputes in next decade’s 2028–2034 negotiations.