The European Union's debt is currently at its highest level ever.

Omissions

• The claim is ambiguous about the metric: it is fully accurate for the EU institutions' own borrowing (EU-Bonds/EU-Bills, mainly NextGenerationEU and SURE), but if interpreted as the aggregate general government debt of EU member states relative to GDP, that ratio (81.7% at end-2025) is NOT at its highest ever — it peaked at about 90% of GDP in 2020 and has since declined (by 7.8 percentage points between end-2020 and end-2025).
• The EU's debt is serviced out of the EU budget and largely backs productive lending/grants (Recovery and Resilience Facility), a context omitted by the speaker's critical framing.
• Data used: Commission half-yearly report (€694.9 billion outstanding at 30 June 2025) and the Commission's annual borrowing report (€738.9 billion at 31 December 2025), both published before the 2026-07-07 session date.
• The claim does not cite a source; no specific source was named by the MEP.

Sources

• PrimaryEuropean Commission — H1 2025 Half-yearly report on the implementation of borrowing, debt management and related lending operationsOn 30 June 2025, the EU's total outstanding debt was EUR 694.9 billion, of which EUR 33.3 billion was in the form of EU-Bills.
• PrimaryCouncil of the EU — Commission report COM(2026) on EU borrowing, debt management and lending operations (data as of 31 December 2025)On 31 December 2025, the EU's total outstanding debt was EUR 738.9 billion. Outstanding EU-Bonds stood at a total of EUR 702.1 billion.
• PrimaryEurostat — Government finance statistics (Statistics Explained)In the EU, the government debt-to-GDP ratio increased from 80.7% at the end of 2024 to 81.7% at the end of 2025, and in the euro area it [rose to 87.8%].
• PrimaryEurostat — Structure of government debt (Statistics Explained)Between the end of 2020 and the end of 2025, the EU general government gross debt decreased by -7.8 percentage points (pp) to 81.7% of GDP.
• SecondaryBruegel — The rising cost of European Union borrowing and what to do about itOf the approximately €398 billion in outstanding EU debt as of 30 April 2023, over €350 billion comes from borrowing since October 2020 – ie when SURE borrowing began.