The EU budget continues delivering for Europe in 2025

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

Today, the Court of Auditors (ECA) published its Annual Report, giving the EU’s annual accounts a clean bill of health for the 19th consecutive year. The ECA confirmed that the collection of EU revenues was free from material error.

Significant milestones for the EU Budget in 2025

In a context of geopolitical uncertainty, stronger global competition and ongoing conflicts, including the continuing Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU budget remained a key tool for delivering on the Union’s priorities.

In 2025, the EU budget continued to play a central role in Europe’s support for Ukraine. By the end of last year, the EU and its Member States had made available more than €193.3 billion in support since the start of the war, out of which €88.3 billion was enabled by the EU budget. This support covered humanitarian assistance, crisis response, macro-financial assistance, budget support and early recovery and reconstruction.

The EU’s competitiveness was also supported by the EU budget in 2025 with investments in strategic sectors, cross-border infrastructure, research and innovation, to the tune of €12.9 billion in 2025 for research and innovation. Between 2021 and 2025, the programme had generated more than 22 500 peer-reviewed scientific publications, involved over 130 000 researchers in upskilling activities and contributed to more than 10 000 innovative products and intellectual property applications. The programme also supported over 10 000 SMEs and start-ups, including in areas such as artificial intelligence and advanced materials in the same period. In parallel, the mobilised €58 billion in investment, with €11.7 billion in grants committed to projects focused on decarbonisation, battery manufacturing and renewable hydrogen.

NextGenerationEU continued to support economic recovery through Member State reforms and investments under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. In 2025, the Commission assessed 34 payment requests amounting to €87.3 billion. Across the EU, the facility has made a real difference to the lives of individuals by supporting ambitious investment agendas in key areas such as the green and digital transitions, healthcare, education and training, and support for businesses.

The budget also kept supporting citizens and regions across Europe. In 2025, Member States and regions allocated €3.3 billion in cohesion policy funding to affordable and sustainable housing, and €14.5 billion to climate adaptation and disaster risk management and €3.1 billion to water resilience. Between 2021 and 2025, the EU budget has supported an additional 1 434 megawatt of renewable energy capacity, broadband access for more than 335 000 dwellings, and over 1 000 kilometres of new, upgraded or modernised roads all over Europe.

At the same time, in 2025, the Common Agricultural Policy continued to support rural livelihoods and productivity and promote vibrant rural economies with €53.2 billion in payments in 2025, reaching 5.5 million farmers.

On security and defence, the EU budget helped strengthen Europe’s capabilities and industrial base. In 2025, 63 projects were launched with over €1 billion in EU funding, with SMEs accounting for 38% of beneficiaries. The European Defence Fund awarded around €1 billion to collaborative defence research, development and innovation, including more than €140 million specifically for SMEs developing and testing breakthrough technologies. The ReArm Europe plan, adopted in 2025, could until 2030 unlock up to €650 billion in fiscal space through a 1.5% GDP increase in defence budgets and includes up to €150 billion in loans to address urgent defence investment needs and capability gaps.

In humanitarian action, the EU provided around €2.6 billion in 2025 through the Humanitarian Aid Programme. It supported people affected by natural hazards, conflict, displacement, food insecurity, extreme poverty, human rights violations and gender-based violence. A particular priority was Palestine, for which €220 million was committed to support services for Palestinian people, support the recovery and stabilisation of the West Bank and Gaza, and support for the private sector in Palestine.

The EU budget continued to deliver clear EU added value through support to cross-cutting priorities. In 2025, almost €64 billion (33%) supported climate objectives and over €15 billion (7.8%) biodiversity meeting the targets of 30% and 7.5% respectively, as well as over €19 billion digital priorities and almost €38 billion gender equality.

Strong controls protect the EU Budget

The Commission notes the ECA’s adverse opinion on the regularity of spending under the multiannual financial framework. The ECA’s estimated error rate is 3.8%, comparable to the one of last year at 3.6% and significantly lower than in 2023 (5.6%) and in 2022 (4.2%).

An error does not automatically mean fraud or waste. Most errors and irregularities are non-fraudulent in nature, and the projects concerned continue to deliver positive results in line with the EU’s policy objectives.

The Commission and the ECA play complementary roles in safeguarding the transparent and accountable use of EU funds. However, their estimates of the error rate are not directly comparable due to their distinct mandates.

To protect the budget, the Commission works with those who implement the EU budget on the ground. The Commission relies on extensive controls by Member States and other implementing partners, in addition to its own controls and audits. The Commission also raises awareness of the funding rules by directly addressing beneficiaries of EU funding through campaigns, workshops and other outreach activities.

For cost-based programmes, the Commission estimates that it achieved again its target of keeping the final level of error (i.e. risk at closure), after all ex-post controls and performance of corrections, below 2%.

For performance-based programmes, the Commission calculates the share of expenditure that is at low, medium and high risk, and reports transparently on it, stemming from the assessment of the proper functioning of national governance systems for the 2023–2027 common agricultural policy, and on the achievement of milestones and targets for expenditure related to Moldova, Ukraine and Western Balkans facilities. Overall, the Commission concluded that budget under these performance-based programmes is well protected.

In 2025, as a result of their controls and audits, the Commission and Member States implemented preventive and corrective measures worth €9 billion, including interruptions and suspensions of payments and financial corrections.

The Commission also considers that expenditure under the Recovery and Resilience Facility carries a low level of risk. The Commission obtains reasonable assurance on the satisfactory fulfilment of milestones and targets based on comprehensive ex-ante controls before payments are made (including analysing detailed documentation and, where needed, live checks of systems and on the spot visits), as well as ex-post audit work. If the milestones and targets are assessed by the Commission as not satisfactorily fulfilled, the Commission does not pay all or part of the financial contribution to that Member State.

Ensuring the reliability of accounts and further mitigating risks

The 2025 accounts were for the first time prepared in the EU’s next-generation financial system, SUMMA, which aims to modernise, harmonise and standardise the EU’s financial business processes. SUMMA features systematic and rigorous controls implemented to ensure that financial information is used accurately, reflects the underlying transactions and is fully consistent with the applicable accounting rules.

To ensure the well-functioning of the EU’s anti-fraud system and good cooperation with other key EU institutions involved in the fight against fraud, the Commission has launched a review of the EU’s anti-fraud architecture in July 2025. The results of this review will be presented at the end of 2026.

Background

The publication of the Annual Report of the ECA and the presentation of the Integrated Financial and Accountability Reporting (IFAR) package to the European Parliament kick off the annual ‘discharge procedure’, taking stock of the financial management and achievements of the EU budget in 2025. The IFAR package includes five reports from the Commission that offer a comprehensive look at how the EU budget was used.

For more information

Integrated Financial and Accountability Reporting 2025

Annual management and performance report 2025

Official website of the European Court of Auditors

Factsheet: Delivering results and protecting the EU budget in 2025 – Publications Office of the EU