The 'natural resources and environment' and 'cohesion, resilience and values' areas accounted for almost two thirds of the European Court of Auditors' audited expenditure.
88% confidence
EconomyEuropean Union
Omissions
The ECA's own wording is 'almost two thirds of our audit population' (the expenditure subject to audit), whereas the MEP said 'our audited expenditure'; the substance is the same but the technical term differs.
The ECA notes that Member States share responsibility for around two thirds of EU expenditure, mainly in the areas of natural resources and cohesion — the concentration of spending in these two areas is a structural feature of the EU budget, not a new finding.
The exact publication date of the ECA 2025 annual reports could not be confirmed from the search results; the report covers financial year 2025 and was released in October 2026, i.e. around the date of the plenary session, so the MEP was quoting the most recent ECA annual report available.
Sources
PrimaryEuropean Court of Auditors — '2025 – EU audit in brief' (web publication page)'Together these two spending areas accounts for almost two thirds of our audit population.' Also: 'As Figure 1 shows, the largest shares of the EU budget went to Natural resources and environment and Cohesion, resilience and values'; and 'Natural resources. Total: €59.6 billion (33.8...)'
PrimaryEuropean Court of Auditors — '2025 EU audit in brief' (PDF)'Together these two spending areas accounts for almost two thirds of our audit population.' The PDF also contains figures on 'Cohesion, resilience and values', 'Natural resources and environment' between 2021 and 2025 and estimated error levels for MFF headings 1, 2, 3.