‘Concerning trend’ as bad EU spending keeps rising
Auditors found growing errors in the way the EU splashes its cash.
BRUSSELS — The EU’s spending watchdog estimated in an annual review that at least €9.03 billion of the bloc’s budget in 2023 was spent in a way that broke the rules.
Representing an “error rate” of 5.6 percent, this marks an increase from 4.2 percent in the previous year and 3 percent in the year before that. The European Court of Auditors, the EU institution that published the annual review Thursday, described it as a “concerning trend,” in a statement.
The auditors put the rise down largely to errors made in the spending of cohesion funds, EU money doled out to bolster poor European regions.
Tony Murphy, who leads the European Court of Auditors, warned about skyrocketing EU debt and told reporters he’s not a fan of an idea floated by the Commission to shape the EU’s next seven-year budget in the image of the bloc’s post-pandemic recovery pot. Under that scheme, Brussels only releases tranches of money when countries hit pre-established targets.
That model makes it “extremely difficult” to check money is being well spent, as payments are not linked to specific projects, the president of the European Court of Auditors said.
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