Seven member states hadn’t received any post-pandemic funding by end-2023, say EU auditors

Continued delays are jeopardising the EU’s €724bn post-Covid recovery fund, warns a new report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA).

Transcript

00:00The European Court of Auditors says two European countries have not yet received a single euro

00:06from the post-pandemic fund.

00:08The Recovery and Resilience Facility was established in 2020 during the height of the Covid-19

00:13crisis to help EU economies, with close to 724 billion euros available in grants and

00:20loans.

00:21But the court says that since it began operating in February 2021, Sweden and the Netherlands

00:26have not benefited from it, while Hungary, Belgium, Finland, Ireland and Poland only

00:30started doing so in 2024.

00:33Hungary is in a particular situation, having received 919 million in pre-financing but

00:39no funds for the implementation of measures.

00:42In its plan, Budapest committed to 27 super milestones to fight against corruption and

00:47respect judicial independence, but it has not complied fully with them.

00:52In the case of the Netherlands, the delay is because of politics.

00:56In Netherlands it was political situation and change of the government, so they simply

01:02couldn't actually, because for RRF plan you need really political consensus and support

01:08and the government stands behind the plan and so on and Netherlands was waiting for

01:14that actually, stability let's say like that.

01:18Many other countries have submitted payment requests that are in some cases still being

01:23assessed by the European Commission.

01:25By the end of 2023, around 182 billion euros had been paid to member states, each linked

01:31to specific milestones and targets.

01:33But the court of auditors warns that these disbursements don't necessarily correspond

01:38to targets that have already been achieved.

01:41It can happen that they will face during construction period and implementation a lot of difficulties,

01:47obstacles and then delays, that they will not actually manage to do this by the end

01:52of 2026 and then they will not finish the whole project, the whole measure, while they

02:00already received in 2023 funds for signing the contract.

02:08For this reason, the court has recommended that the Commission take steps to ensure that

02:13any project financed using Recovery and Resilience Facility funds is actually completed.