In cohesion policy, the estimated error rate reached 6.6% in 2025.

Omissions

• The 6.6% figure refers specifically to MFF heading 2 'Cohesion, resilience and values', which covers cohesion policy plus resilience and values programmes, rather than to cohesion policy alone; ECA consistently reports cohesion policy as being above the 2% materiality threshold.
• The 6.6% is the ECA's estimated level of error (a statistical estimate of money that should not have been paid), not a measure of fraud; ECA notes that most errors are not fraudulent.
• The claim omits the 2024 comparator (5.7%), i.e. that the error rate deteriorated by 0.9 percentage points year on year.
• The ECA annual report for financial year 2025 was published on 8 October 2026, before the 21 October 2026 plenary session, so the MEP could have known it.

Sources

• PrimaryEuropean Court of Auditors — 2025 EU audit in brief (Annual reports concerning the 2025 financial year)'Cohesion, resilience and values' had an estimated level of error at 6.6 % (5.7 % in 2024).
• PrimaryEuropean Court of Auditors — Annual reports concerning the 2025 financial yearIn 2025, EU payments totalled €216.4 billion: €176.3 billion in spending from the EU budget, and a further €40.1 billion from the Recovery and Resilience Facility; the overall estimated level of error in EU expenditure examined rose to 3.8% in 2025.
• SecondaryThe Brussels Times — 'The devil in the details: How the EU misspent 3.8% of the 2025 budget'The estimated level of error in EU spending rose to 3.8 % in 2025, from 3.6 % in 2024... 6.6 % in 2025 for cohesion.