European Court of Auditors finds EU recovery funds largely ineffective

A report from the European Court of Auditors reveals that nearly 50 billion euros from the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility, intended to modernize public administration, have yielded minimal results. The auditors found that only about one-third of the investigated measures achieved significant outcomes.

The funds were aimed at improving digital transformation, electronic government services, public procurement, and competition across EU member states. However, the report notes that none of the recommendations issued by the EU in 2019 and 2020 were fully implemented. Auditors criticized the current method of measuring success, noting that while project implementation can be tracked, there is little evidence that these projects actually make administrations faster, more efficient, or more user-friendly.

In Germany, the report noted progress in digitizing specific services, such as vehicle registration and address changes, but highlighted a lack of progress in modernizing state registers due to coordination issues between federal, state, and local authorities. The Court of Auditors recommends that future EU programs focus more heavily on measurable results.