ECA auditor Laima Andrikiene says spending errors, rising debt entail risks for both EU and Lithuania

  • 2025-10-13

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has delivered a mixed verdict on the European Union’s finances for 2024: the EU’s accounts are “true and fair”, revenues are error-free – yet an estimated 3.6% of spending was affected by irregularities, and a swelling debt burden threatens to squeeze future budgets. 

ECA auditors issued an adverse opinion on EU budget expenditure for the sixth straight year, citing pervasive errors – often linked to ineligible projects or public-procurement breaches – with Cohesion policy again the main driver (an estimated 5.7% error rate, down from 9.3% in 2023). By contrast, they gave a qualified opinion on the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), flagging six non-compliant grant payments in 2024 and design weaknesses in milestones and targets. 

Lithuanian ECA Member Laima Andrikiene, a co-author of the annual report who led the chapter on “Neighbouring countries and the world” (8.1% of EU spending), emphasised: “For the sixth year in a row, the opinion on EU budget expenditure is adverse, and the error rate stands at 3.6%”, noting that both the ECA and Commission use a 2% materiality threshold. 

“This means that out of every €100 of EU budget funds, more than €3 were used in breach of the rules. That amounts to €6 billion that should not have been paid,” she explained.

The typical errors, she said, involve payments to ineligible beneficiaries or projects, or breaches of procurement rules. 

The headline findings arrive as the bloc debates its next long-term budget from 2028 and as interest costs from post-pandemic borrowing climb. 

Beyond irregularities, the Court spotlights debt dynamics. EU borrowing outstanding could surpass €900bn by 2027 – almost ten times pre-NGEU levels – with interest on NGEU potentially exceeding €30bn in the current budget period and up to €74bn from 2028–2034. The auditors urge policymakers to weigh borrowing-related obligations carefully when shaping future budgets, with stronger performance measurement, transparency and accountability. 

On debt, Andrikiene delivered a stark warning aligned with the Court’s press release: “Rising interest payments pose a risk to future EU budgets. By 2027, outstanding borrowed funds could exceed €900 billion…” She cautioned that interest linked to pandemic-era borrowing could surpass €100bn by 2034, urging responsible planning to avoid “debt traps”. 

Andrikiene also turned a spotlight on Lithuania’s own performance. 

“Excluding RRF, in 2024, Lithuania received €1.83 billion from the EU budget… while Lithuania’s contributions amounted to €595.1 million. The conclusion – Lithuania received three times more than it paid in,” she said.

That net-beneficiary position becomes even more favourable once RRF disbursements are included. 

Yet she warned that absorption risks loom: “Lithuania is lagging in absorbing RRF funds… by the end of 2024 Lithuania had received only 46% of the grants foreseen.” 

All reforms and investments must be completed by end-August 2026 – otherwise, funds could remain unused or be clawed back if already-achieved milestones are reversed. Cohesion funding paints a similarly troubling picture: “Over four years of the period, Lithuania has used only 11.8% of cohesion funds,” the ECA auditor said.

She cited late EU-level legal acts and the crowding-out effect from fully financed RRF projects (which require no national co-financing) as drivers of delay. 

The ECA’s press release and Andrikiene’s message converge on a simple policy prescription: reinforce checks where error risks are structurally higher; sharpen the design and verification of outcome-based instruments like the RRF; and put debt sustainability at the centre of the post-2027 framework. The Court stresses that spending models tying disbursements to milestones should only be used when responsibilities are clear, funding is linked to measurable results, and payments are traceable to actual costs – an implicit roadmap for the next Multiannual Financial Framework. 

For national capitals – Vilnius included – the message is equally direct. With billions available but clocks ticking, governments must speed up project pipelines, protect already achieved reforms and avoid over-promising.