The EU’s auditors have signed off the bloc’s 2025 annual accounts for the 19th year running, saying EU revenues were collected without material error.
The European Court of Auditors gave the accounts a “clean bill of health” in its annual report, the European Commission announced on Thursday.
More than €193.3 billion in support for Ukraine had been made available by the EU and its member states since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, including €88.3 billion enabled by the EU budget, the Commission said.
It added that the support covered humanitarian assistance, crisis response, macro-financial assistance, budget support and early recovery and reconstruction.
The EU budget also provided €12.9 billion for research and innovation in 2025.
Between 2021 and 2025, the same programme generated more than 22,500 peer-reviewed scientific publications and supported more than 10,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups, it added.
NextGenerationEU — the EU’s post-pandemic recovery package — continued to fund reforms and investments through the Recovery and Resilience Facility, which provides money to member states once agreed targets are met, the Commission said.
It assessed 34 payment requests worth €87.3 billion in 2025.
Spending errors and controls
The Commission stated that the Court of Auditors issued an adverse opinion on the “regularity” of spending under the EU’s long-term budget framework, known as the multiannual financial framework.
The auditors’ estimated error rate in spending was 3.8% in 2025, compared with 3.6% the previous year, and down from 5.6% in 2023 and 4.2% in 2022.
Tthe Commission added that an error “does not automatically mean fraud or waste”.
Preventive and corrective measures worth €9 billion were implemented in 2025 following controls and audits by the Commission and member states, including payment interruptions, suspensions and financial corrections.
The Commission also said the EU provided around €2.6 billion in humanitarian aid in 2025, including €220 million committed for Palestine.
