Irregularities found in EU spending

The European Union’s top audit watchdog today criticised inadequate controls over the majority of EU expenditure, highlighting irregularities particularly in the spending of economic aid going to poorer regions.

In a Strasbourg report analysing the way the EU’s €105bn budget is spent, the European Court of Auditors said it had found irregularities in accounting ranging from incorrect paperwork and poor management to what it called “presumed attempts to defraud the EU budget”.