The European Court of Auditors, in its audit report, pointed to a number of irregularities related to the implementation of the so-called recovery fund by the European Commission, for which liabilities have already been incurred at a level close to €600 billion. “EU citizens have the right to know what is happening with public funds, who receives them, and how much money is actually being spent”, emphasized Court member Ivana Maletić.
The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), which is part of the broader recovery fund project, is one of the largest financial undertakings in the EU. It was originally intended as a form of support for EU economies after the COVID-19 pandemic, in line with digitalization and the Green Deal. Its implementation in individual member states was to be based on national recovery plans approved by Brussels. Funding is disbursed upon the achievement of specific milestones and targets defined for each national plan.
In total, the RRF amounts to €723.8 billion for member states in grants and loans. According to the European Court of Auditors, by January 2026 the EU had already incurred €577 billion in liabilities to finance the mechanism.
ECA: Lack of Clarity Around the EU Instrument
However, the Court pointed out significant gaps in the RRF that affect the ability to monitor spending and ensure transparency.
“If funding is not fully transparent, citizens lose trust in public finances. (…) Meanwhile, we lack some of the information on how RRF funds are being used. EU citizens have the right to know what is happening with public funds, who receives them, and how much money is actually being spent”, said Ivana Maletić, the member of the European Court of Auditors responsible for auditing the RRF.
The Court found that information related to monitoring and transparency is incomplete, and that individual countries do not always systematically collect or publish data, including on how funds are used.
“The European Commission does not collect data on the amounts actually paid out for the implementation of specific RRF measures, even when member states have such data. Due to this lack of information, it is more difficult for the Commission to assess whether member states have used RRF funds effectively”, the Court reported.
Auditors also raised concerns regarding the milestones and the evaluation of their fulfillment.
“Furthermore, the RRF transparency rules do not guarantee a full picture of financial flows. Although all member states publish a mandatory list of the 100 largest final recipients, it does not adequately reflect how the funding is used overall. Firstly, public entities (such as ministries) account for more than half of the recipients on the list. Member states are not required to publish information on subsequent payments made by these entities – namely payments to contractors carrying out public procurement – and therefore such information is not disclosed. Secondly, none of the 10 countries audited provided information on more entities than the minimum required 100 recipients. As a result, publicly available information on who ultimately benefits from the RRF and to what extent remains incomplete”, the Court stated.
The audit report also noted that concerns regarding the RRF had previously been raised by, among others, the European Parliament, the OECD, and the European Ombudsman. The ECA audit covered 10 countries – Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Spain, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Germany, and Romania.
The Report Is Alarming
Moreover, the Court highlighted that the system of milestones and national recovery plans represents the first large-scale use by the EU of a “non-cost-based financing model”.
This raises particular concerns in the context of the upcoming “seven-year” budget – the next EU financial framework – which, according to the European Commission’s assumptions, is to be based on a similar mechanism of national plans.
“We must not allow future EU budgets to suffer from the same transparency shortcomings as this instrument [RRF]”, Maletić stressed.
The report is alarming, as noted by MEP Bogdan Rzońca, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions.
“The European Court of Auditors raises the alarm: it is unclear who benefits from the loans [under the RRF], what the borrowed money is spent on in individual countries, how much is being spent, and what the outcomes are of the €577 billion involved, because it evaluates outputs rather than results”, Rzońca wrote on social media.
“It is an absolute scandal that the European Commission developed such a dysfunctional mechanism that we have no idea where billions of our money have gone! This is yet another scandal linked to von der Leyen, after ‘Pfizergate’ – the largest corruption scandal in EU history at the highest levels of the European Commission and the European Parliament – unlawful interference in elections in EU countries, or the scandalous agreement with Mercosur”, said MEP Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik.