Criticism of the Court of Auditors – Irregular EU spending and record debt

Date:

The war in Ukraine and the record debts of 458.5 billion euros are putting enormous pressure on the European Union budget. According to the European Court of Auditors, another negative trend is also increasing: the error rate in expenditure in various policy areas is increasing. According to the Court of Auditors’ annual report, of the total expenditure from the EU budget of €191.2 billion, almost €11 billion flowed irregularly last year.

Contrary to the rules means that co-financing, loans, non-repayable grants and financing were provided for certain projects in EU countries even though not all EU requirements were met or controlled by the responsible authorities at state level or they were in conflict with national requirements. According to the annual report presented on Wednesday, the highest error rates in 2023 were in the areas of “cohesion, resilience and values” (cohesion and regional development) and “internal market, innovation and digital”.

IT equipment in the Czech Republic ended up with subsidiaries
The report also contains some case studies. Among other things, a company in the Czech Republic is mentioned that received money from the regional development fund for IT equipment. However, a description of what everything was needed for was left out of the company’s required application. Moreover, not all equipment was used for project activities. Some of the equipment even ended up at a subsidiary that did not meet financing guidelines at all.

Direct award fraud in Hungary
A case is also reported in Hungary. There, a consortium of three institutions received funding to provide free legal advice to employees and employers. However, the national supervisory body in the award process gave a negative opinion about the bidders. These were said to have unlawfully distorted competition. The open procedure was divided into several smaller assignments. These were then awarded immediately – without a tender. The opinion of the Court of Auditors’ experts in this case is clear: the consortium would be “ineligible” because of this behavior.

According to the auditors, there were also EU-wide irregularities in part of the 48 billion euros paid out under the so-called Recovery and Resilience Facility from the reconstruction package after the Corona crisis. Not all conditions that would have justified a claim for aid were always met.

The President of the Court of Audit warns of a loss of confidence
“This issue makes it clear that we need robust oversight and accountability mechanisms, both at Member State and EU level, so that we do not lose public confidence and can safeguard future EU budgets,” said the President of the EU Court. of accountants, Tony Murphy, firm.

“Significant financial risks for the EU”
According to the Court of Auditors, the war in Ukraine and record high debt pose “significant financial risks for the EU”. Liabilities increased to 458.5 billion euros at the end of 2023. In 2022, the debt still amounted to 348 billion euros. The majority of this outstanding amount, €268.4 billion, relates to investments under the Next Generation EU recovery programme. This is the EU’s largest economic stimulus package to date.

The war in Ukraine also consumes a lot of EU money. Finally, financial aid for the country, which has had EU candidate status since June 23, 2022, has “more than doubled” from 16 to 33.7 billion euros in 2023, according to the Court of Auditors’ annual report. In view of these amounts, the auditors warn that shifting the risk of defaults into the future could put pressure on the EU budget. After all, no provisions are needed in connection with the tens of billions of euros in aid to Ukraine.

Source: Krone

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Share post:

Subscribe

Popular

More like this
Related

Up close at the US elections – Tomaselli: “It will be closer than last time”

National Council member Nina Tomaselli (Greens) was in the...

Argument about the Mercosur pact – farmers with criticism: hormone schnitzel from Brazil

Our farmers are taking to the barricades again. According...

Greens are critical: – No corona shot in the blue-yellow vaccination bus

Are there organizational or political reasons why Covid protection...

Precautionary alert – detection of Borna virus in animals in Bavaria

After several detections of the Borna virus in animals...