The European Court of Auditors notes an increase in errors in EU spending

The auditors point out that Spain did not fully meet one of the 52 milestones of its application to the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism

MADRID, 13 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The European Court of Auditors has warned that the overall level of errors in spending under the EU budget increased in the 2021 financial year to 3%, compared to the level of 2.7% recorded in 2020, which has led auditors to issue an unfavorable opinion on EU spending in 2021.

"As in the last two years, the auditors conclude that the level of error of high-risk spending was widespread and have issued an unfavorable opinion on EU spending in 2021," says the Court.

Almost 63.2% of audited spending was considered high risk, an increase from 59% in 2020 and compared to previous years. High-risk spending recorded material errors at an estimated percentage of 4.7% for 2021, up from 4% in 2020.

The estimated level of error is not an indicator of fraud, inefficiency or waste, but rather an estimate of funds that were not used fully in accordance with EU and national rules.

However, during their examination, the auditors also detected fifteen cases of suspected fraud, up from six in 2020.

In 2021, the total budget expenditure of the EU amounted to €181.5 billion, the equivalent of 2.4% of the total expenditure of the public administrations of the EU Member States and 1.3% of their gross national income.

Taking into account Recovery and Resilience Facility spending, total EU payments in 2021 amounted to €228 billion. About three quarters of them are spent under shared management, under which Member States distribute funds, select projects and manage EU spending.

The auditors annually audit the EU's income and expenditure and examine whether the annual accounts are reliable, and whether the income and expenditure operations are in accordance with the applicable regulations.

An "adverse" opinion means that the auditors have found widespread problems. To deliver their opinion, the auditors check samples of transactions to enable them to obtain statistical estimates of the degree to which expenditure from the EU budget is affected by error. They measure the estimated level of error for this expense against a 2% threshold, above which irregular expenses are considered significant.

This year, the audit covered for the first time the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, the main component of the European Recovery Instrument (NextGenerationEU), with a value of 800,000 million euros, aimed at mitigating the economic consequences of the pandemic.

In 2021, only one payment from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism was made, the one corresponding to Spain, the Court notes, adding that "the auditors found that one of the 52 milestones included in Spain's payment request had not been fully met", although it did not consider the consequent impact to be significant.

However, the auditors found weaknesses in the Commission's assessment of milestones and call for improvements in future such assessments.

They also note that compliance with other national and EU rules is not part of the Commission's assessment of the legality and regularity of payments under the Mechanism and is therefore not analyzed in their opinion.

In addition, the effectiveness of the different reforms covered by the milestones could preferably be covered in future specific special reports.