The estimated error rate in EU expenditure is 3.8%, and reaches 6.6% for the Cohesion, Resilience and Values heading
96% confidence
EconomyEuropean Union
Omissions
The 3.8% is an estimated level of error for the payments examined by the ECA in the 2025 financial year (EU budget plus Recovery and Resilience Facility and other funds), not for the entire EU budget; the ECA's materiality threshold is 2%.
The claim omits that heading 2 'Cohesion, resilience and values' is not the only problem area: the ECA reports that heading 2 and the other main high-error spending area (natural resources/agriculture) together account for almost two thirds of the audited spending, and press coverage of the same report highlights 6.6% error rates for both cohesion funds and the natural resources heading.
Both figures deteriorated compared with 2024 (3.6% overall and 5.7% for heading 2), which the speaker does not state but which would strengthen rather than weaken the point.
The report was published in October 2026, i.e. shortly before the plenary session of 21 October 2026, so the MEP could have known it.
PrimaryEuropean Court of Auditors — 2025 EU audit in brief (web page)... year ended 31 December 2025 is 3.8 % (2024: 3.6 %). A substantial ... financial framework heading 2 'Cohesion, resilience and values'. / 'Cohesion, resilience and values' had an estimated level of error at 6.6 % (5.7 % in 2024).