Latest news with #EuropeanCourtofAuditors
Euractiv
01-08-2025
- Business
- Euractiv
Why Europe's Green Deal rail dream isn't turning into reality
Once touted as the bloc's best bet for clean cross-continental transport, Europe's railway network hasn't improved much over the last few years. As the EU aims for climate neutrality by 2050, the European Green Deal sets out a clear path to cut emissions across all sectors – especially transport, which makes up about a quarter of the EU's total. Rail, which accounts for less than 1% of transport emissions, was supposed to be the future: clean, efficient, and continental. Deploying trains to cut back on emissions was the aim of Europe's rail plan, with goals including doubling high-speed rail traffic by 2030 and tripling it by 2050. Crumbling infrastructure, high fares, and fragmented governance have turned what should be the backbone of green mobility into a symbol of political stagnation and missed opportunity. A civilian failure In theory, the EU's Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) was supposed to create a sleek, high-speed rail network that would connect cities and rural areas while cutting emissions – making it an ideal alternative to flying. But in practice, Europe's grand rail vision hasn't taken off yet - and fragmentation is the main culprit. Every country runs its own system, with different rules, timetables, and ticketing platforms – turning cross-border trips into a jigsaw puzzle for consumers. A journey from Brussels to Budapest might mean booking on multiple websites, long layovers, and no easy way to plan it. And then there's the price tag: while budget airlines often offer cross-border flights for under €50, rail fares frequently way exceed double the price for the same route. While countries like France and Spain show off their high-speed TGV and AVE lines, they rarely connect across borders – and in Eastern Europe, the situation's even worse. In Romania, for example, intercity trains now run slower than they did in the 1980s due to poor infrastructure. Despite heavy public investment – like the allocated TEN-T's €60 billion in co-funded rail, road, and port projects since 2014 – passengers continue to face high fares, poor connectivity, and sluggish travel times, making flying cheaper and faster in many cases. A defence liability With the continuation of the war in Ukraine and rising defence budgets across the continent, there is a growing concern over the ability to move troops, heavy armour, and supplies across Europe quickly and efficiently. A 2025 report from the European Court of Auditors confirmed what many already feared: that military mobility progress has been slow and uncoordinated . Of the 500 identified priority projects, only a handful have begun construction. In early 2024, a NATO exercise involving the rapid deployment of tanks from Germany to Romania was delayed by more than a week due to outdated bridges that couldn't support the weight, military convoys missing customs clearances, and a lack of compatible rail cars. Just like commuters, modern militaries runs on railways too, and as it stands, Europe's train network just isn't fast enough to keep up. (jp)
Euractiv
17-07-2025
- Business
- Euractiv
The Brief – Ursula von der Leyen is cooking the books on climate funding
Facing accusations the EU is no longer serious about its green agenda, Ursula von der Leyen has promised that a third of her €2 trillion mega budget will go on climate and biodiversity policies. In reality, that pledge is already up in smoke, with a major shortcoming of current climate "mainstreaming" unaddressed. The Commission wants to increase the EU budget to just shy of €2 trillion starting 2028, up from €1.2 trillion in the seven years to 2027. And 35% of that – or one euro in every three, as an EU official told reporters today – must have a positive effect on the climate and biodiversity. Great news for the planet, you might think. But even before MEPs and governments get to work on the bill, it's unclear whether von der Leyen's green promise stands up given the clauses, caveats, and coefficients that muddy the water. For example, for every €100 of EU money spent on a new runway or the extension of an airport terminal, for example, €40 is deemed to have been spent on climate adaptation. On the other hand, if that €100 is ploughed into the protection and restoration of wetland and peatlands – which unlike the above example is unarguably a climate and biodiversity-positive intervention – it is counted three times: once for climate mitigation, once for climate adaptation and once for environmental restoration. Even in the admittedly unlikely event that the whole of von der Leyen's €2 trillion went into airport runways, the 35% target would be easily overshot by 5 percentage points. This scope for double, or triple counting is nothing new: it already exists in the current 30% climate-only mainstreaming target, and a 37.5% target was attached to the post-Covid recovery fund – a fact that has drawn criticism from the EU's budget watchdog already. The European Court of Auditors concluded last year that 'some projects tagged as green were found to lack a direct link to the green transition upon closer inspection'. What we also know is that the LIFE programme – the only one directly funding nature projects on the ground – is gone. At least in theory, it has been absorbed into a €234 billion European Competitiveness Fund. Although there are various EU laws requiring governments to try and halt biodiversity loss – a thing that decades of targets and nature legislation consistently failed to do – the modest €5.4 billion of the current €1.2 trillion budget is no longer ring-fenced. (jp) Roundup Best of friends: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed a landmark friendship treaty today, which will see the two countries collaborate more closely on security matters and defence, including on nuclear deterrence. Political super groups: We've got the Weimar Triangle, or E3, then the E4, G5, G7 etc etc. All these are just part of the trend for crossover event political meetings between major national leaders, and Thursday's Merz-Starmer summit in London is one big balancing act. Still racking your brains over the budget numbers? A good 24 hours after the European Commission's dropped its much anticipated seven-year spending plan, experts are still getting to grips with how it works. While Ursula von der Leyen called it 'the most ambitious ever proposed', it's also clearly the most complicated yet. Across Europe Who's afraid of Brussels? You might think that Russian election tampering is top of mind when it comes to October's national elections in Czechia. Not so, since a large share of Czechs believe the EU may well interfere in the country's parliamentary elections.
Euronews
11-06-2025
- Business
- Euronews
ECA flags inefficiencies in EU wildfire spending
A lack of updated map data is making the fight against wildfires in Europe inefficient, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) said in a report on Wednesday. The report analyses how some member states use EU funds to prevent wildfires. While it acknowledges significant investments in prevention, the ECA notes that the data used are outdated and there is little monitoring of the actual impact of the spending. The report reviewed projects funded since 2014 through the European Structural and Investment Funds and the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) in Greece, Spain, Poland, and Portugal. Auditors concluded that projects selected to receive EU funds do not always target areas where the impact will be the greatest. For instance, it was found that in Greece the list of areas prone to forest fires is more than 45 years old, while a partially flooded area in Portugal was prioritised for forest fires because the hazard map was outdated and didn't include a dam built several years earlier. "On a positive note, more EU money is being spent on prevention of fires. However, the way EU-funded projects are selected means the money doesn't always go where it could make the biggest difference. Little is known about the results of these funded projects, and, once the project ends, it's unclear whether the activities will be continued," Nikolaos Milionis, the ECA member responsible for the audit, said during a press conference. In some Spanish regions, meanwhile, the budget was shared equally between all provinces, regardless of risks and needs. The three countries, along with France, are traditionally among the worst-hit EU member states when it comes to wildfires. Forest fires have intensified in recent years with an average of more than 5,200 square kilometres going up in flames yearly over the past four years across the 27-country bloc. Member states have increasingly focused their effort on preventive measures. In Portugal, for instance, the percentage spent on prevention rose from 20% in 2017 to 61% in 2022, according to the ECA. Auditors were however unable to tally up the precise amount of EU funds that were spent by member states on forest fires due in part to governments not being required to differentiate between different types of natural disasters when reporting to the European Commission on the amounts spent. As such, the real impact of EU funds in tackling forest fires is unknown, auditors say. They called on the EU executive to promote good practices for project selection including through the use of up-to-date risk maps, geographical coverage criterion and a risk-based criteria. They also urged the Commission to make use of the information available at EU level through the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), which tracks burnt areas and fires on a weekly basis across the bloc, among other data. The platform shows for instance that more than 168,000 hectares have been reduced to cinders as of 10 June across the EU - nearly triple the amount burnt by that date on average over the 2006-2024 period - in some 911 fires, a number also up by 2.5 times. The ECA's report did not review funds provided through the response function or the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, which will be the subject of a future audit. The Commission has for instance financed the acquisition of 12 amphibious firefighting planes, which are set to start coming online in 2027, and is also shouldering the cost of pre-positioning firefighters in high-risk areas.
Daily Tribune
29-04-2025
- Business
- Daily Tribune
EU ‘off the pace' in global microchip race: auditors
The EU is lagging behind in the global race to produce microchips, and looks set to fall well short of its target to claim a fifth of the world's market, the bloc's auditors said Monday. 'The EU urgently needs a reality check in its strategy for the microchips sector,' said Annemie Turtelboom, a member of the European Court of Auditors. 'This is a fast-moving field, with intense geopolitical competition, and we are currently far off the pace needed to meet our ambitions.' The disappointing outlook for the European Union comes despite Brussels passing a flagship Chips Act in 2023 aimed at bolstering production in the bloc. Turtelboom said that at current growth rates, the EU was 'nowhere close' to reaching its target of having a 20% share of the global microchip market by 2030.
Euronews
26-03-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Key labour market challenges unaddressed by multi-billion post-pandemic funds, say EU auditors
ADVERTISEMENT Reforms introduced by member states under the EU's €650 billion post-pandemic recovery fund (RRF) have had only a limited impact on their labour markets, according to a new report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA). 'Brussels uses RRF funds as an incentive for EU countries to undertake important structural reforms and make their economies more resilient,' said Ivana Maletić, the auditor in charge of the report. 'However, in the area of labour market policies, the reforms bypassed some structural issues that are of particular importance for EU citizens,' Maletić added. Under the so-called Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU linked funding for member states to economic and social reforms for the first time, including in the area of labour and employment policies. In their national recovery and resilience plans, EU countries included 98 labour market reforms of different scope and ambition, but the majority did not meet expectations or align with the level of ambition set in the regulation, according to the new audit. The reforms substantially addressed only 40% of the key national recommendations, marginally addressed 26%, and did not address 34%. 'This was really striking — to find that basically two-thirds of country-specific recommendations in the field of labour markets were not at all or only marginally addressed,' the lead auditor told reporters on Wednesday morning. The audit argues that some national reforms had the potential to address structural challenges in the labour market, such as the French reform of unemployment insurance, while others are unlikely to have a lasting impact, such as a 2021 German Social Guarantee. Four countries — Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, and Slovakia — did not include any reforms to tackle the EU's recommendations. 'Moreover, there is so far no evidence for about half of the reforms that they have led to tangible results or impacted the member states' labour markets,' Maletić said. Overall, the proposed reforms have achieved some outputs, but specific targets, like those related to gender equality, which is highly prominent in the RRF regulation, are only addressed by 10% of the introduced labour market reforms. 'We live in a time where resources are very scarce, and we really have to try to use them in the best way and get the best value for money,' the Luxembourg-based auditor argued. The EU's financial watchdog has called on the Commission to create a framework for assessing the results of reforms, ensuring that national plans properly address key challenges and thoroughly checking that the targets and milestones set out in the reforms are being met. 'We are not against this change of approach from cost reimbursement to performance-based, but when we do this, we have to be careful that we have baseline figures, that we know what we want to achieve in the different policy areas, and that we can measure whether we are achieving these or not,' Maletić stressed. The auditor concluded that there is still 'significant' room for improvement in designing, implementing, and measuring the results of these reforms. ADVERTISEMENT The Commission accepted or partially accepted the auditors' recommendations, while stressing that it has 'no legal basis' to require member states to introduce new reforms and investments to address specific additional challenges identified in the country recommendations. The EU executive also noted that the proportion of challenges addressed in the national recovery plans could be higher, as investments were not considered in this audit, but are crucial to address certain types of challenges relevant to the audit theme (e.g. skills development or active labour market measures). The institution finally recalled that measures not specifically dedicated to these policy areas may also contribute to addressing labour market-related challenges.
