October 20, 2026

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October 20, 2026

Newsletter

The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • strategic insight

LATEST
EU-UK Summit Hangs On Youth Scheme And Carbon Market LinkBlack Sea Shipping Attacks Put EU Maritime Hub To The TestStock Options Split Governments Over EU Inc 28th Regime MandateCouncil Seals Return Regulation With Return Hubs And Entry BansParcel Handling Fee Lands By 1 November On Low-Value EU ImportsIndia Trade Agreement Heads Into The Council’s Signing QueueBosnia EU Accession Stays Frozen After A Record Low Turnout VoteForeign Investment Screening Regulation Binds Every StateImporters Face EU Deforestation Regulation On 30 DecemberMînzatu Pushes The EU Anti-Poverty Strategy Toward 2030EU Budget Fraud Protection Shifts To National Anti-Fraud ServicesCohesion Policy Row Splits Fitto And Regions Over The 2028 BudgetIn-Game Virtual Currencies Draw EU Action Against Nine StudiosAnnual Euro Area Inflation Hits 3.8 percent As Energy Prices ClimbFRTB Market Risk Rules Await Parliament Scrutiny Before 2027EDIP Defence Funding Backs Eight Plants Making Missile FuelInnovation Act Lets Start-Ups Borrow Against Patents And IP RightsPublic Procurement Act Replaces Three Directives With One RuleGeorgia EU Candidate Status Frays After Parliament Sanctions CallIndonesia EU CEPA Signing Hinges On GSP Deadline And Text LanguageEU-UK Summit Hangs On Youth Scheme And Carbon Market LinkBlack Sea Shipping Attacks Put EU Maritime Hub To The TestStock Options Split Governments Over EU Inc 28th Regime MandateCouncil Seals Return Regulation With Return Hubs And Entry BansParcel Handling Fee Lands By 1 November On Low-Value EU ImportsIndia Trade Agreement Heads Into The Council’s Signing QueueBosnia EU Accession Stays Frozen After A Record Low Turnout VoteForeign Investment Screening Regulation Binds Every StateImporters Face EU Deforestation Regulation On 30 DecemberMînzatu Pushes The EU Anti-Poverty Strategy Toward 2030EU Budget Fraud Protection Shifts To National Anti-Fraud ServicesCohesion Policy Row Splits Fitto And Regions Over The 2028 BudgetIn-Game Virtual Currencies Draw EU Action Against Nine StudiosAnnual Euro Area Inflation Hits 3.8 percent As Energy Prices ClimbFRTB Market Risk Rules Await Parliament Scrutiny Before 2027EDIP Defence Funding Backs Eight Plants Making Missile FuelInnovation Act Lets Start-Ups Borrow Against Patents And IP RightsPublic Procurement Act Replaces Three Directives With One RuleGeorgia EU Candidate Status Frays After Parliament Sanctions CallIndonesia EU CEPA Signing Hinges On GSP Deadline And Text Language

Auditors Put The EU Budget Error Rate At 3.8 Percent For 2025

Viktoria Ottesen
Policy Watch Reporter, EU Budget

Graz: The EU budget error rate rose to 3.8 percent in 2025, according to the European Court of Auditors, up from 3.6 percent a year earlier. The auditors published their annual report on 8 October 2026 and issued an adverse opinion on EU spending for the seventh consecutive year. They gave a qualified opinion on spending from the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

The estimate does not mean fraud. It measures money paid out in breach of EU or national rules, most often because projects or costs were ineligible or because public procurement rules were ignored. The auditors found no errors in revenue transactions and said the 2025 accounts give a true and fair view. Even so, the EU budget error rate is the headline figure that finance ministers and MEPs will quote when they argue over the next budget.

Two areas pushed the EU budget error rate up. Cohesion spending showed an error rate of 6.6 percent, up from 5.7 percent in 2024. Agriculture and environment spending rose from 2.6 percent to 3.9 percent. Those are the policy areas that carry the largest shares of the current budget, and they are also the ones that the 2028 to 2034 proposals would reshape.

The recovery fund drew sharper criticism. Auditors found irregularities in €45.4 billion of RRF spending. Of 37 payments to member states in 2025, nine did not comply with the rules and conditions, with problems that included unsatisfactory milestone fulfilment, procurement breaches and state aid irregularities. By the end of 2025, €237.5 billion of the €359.9 billion committed had been disbursed, which leaves more than €122 billion for the final year. Only three of 27 member states had drawn at least 80 percent of their allocations.

That matters because the 2028 to 2034 budget would largely mirror the recovery fund model, with financing less tied to costs. The Court’s President put it plainly: “If the EU moves to a new budget model where financing is no longer linked to costs, we must learn from experience.” The auditors want better milestone design, stronger Commission monitoring and tighter national control systems before that model becomes the norm, and the EU budget error rate will show whether those fixes work.

Debt adds pressure. EU borrowing could reach €1 trillion by 2027, largely because of NextGenerationEU, and interest costs on non-repayable NGEU support could reach €93 billion in the 2028 to 2034 period. Loans to Ukraine since 2014, including the €90 billion loan decided in early 2026, total up to €170.1 billion, of which €70.3 billion had been paid out by the end of 2025.

The Court warns that rising debt, which sits alongside the EU budget error rate as a second worry, could squeeze future budgets and policy choices. It also says that without new revenue sources the EU could face a shortfall, with higher national contributions or lower ambitions as the likely result. Capitals that want a bigger budget will have to say where the money comes from.

Negotiators now have an audit trail to test their own proposals against. Whether capitals accept tighter controls in exchange for flexibility will decide if the next EU budget error rate falls, and the 2025 figure gives them a clear baseline to beat.

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