EU looks to recoup €5bn from member states

The EU will be seeking to recoup about €5bn from member states after the European Court of Auditors says the rules were not followed in schemes worth about 4% of money spent last year.

Kevin Cardiff, the Irish member of the court, said while the error rate for spending was not much greater than in 2010, it was still too much.

“In some sectors up to 40% of cases were found to contain some kind of error. While 96% of the money is OK, we do not see every case, and as a European citizen you could not be 100% happy,” he said.