“In 2024, the European Court of Auditors did not detect any indication of suspected fraud related to Portugal,” stated the Portuguese member of the ECA, João Leão, to the Lusa news agency.
On the day the ECA’s annual report on EU finances is released, the former Portuguese Finance Minister noted this marks a change from the previous document, as in 2023, the EU auditor recorded three cases of suspicion and investigation of fraud.
Across the EU last year, the court reported a total of 19 cases of suspicion to the European Anti-Fraud Office, compared to 20 in 2023.
The most frequent reasons for suspected fraud were intentionally presenting false statements or documents, artificially creating the conditions necessary for obtaining EU funding, and the misuse of Union funds for purposes other than those granted.
However, the report notes that the court detected cases of non-compliance with national or EU rules in Portugal regarding public procurement of vaccines and medicines against COVID-19.
Ineligible costs were also detected concerning the overstatement of personnel costs in an action funded under Erasmus+ in Portugal.
Regarding the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), no quantitative findings were recorded for Portugal, compared to a total of 12 quantitative findings identified among the member states.
“Concerning quantifiable errors, Portugal maintains a generally stable profile, without significant changes compared to previous years. The identified errors mainly result from situations of ineligible expenditure,” João Leão indicated to Lusa.
The Portuguese ECA member specified that “it was in the domain of cohesion that the most errors were detected, four quantifiable errors in Portugal, out of a total of 38 errors across Europe.”
“In the area of natural resources, two quantifiable errors were recorded in Portugal, in a total of 22 errors detected among all member states,” he added to Lusa.
Every year, the ECA audits the Union’s revenue and expenditure, checking the reliability of the annual accounts and whether the revenue and expenditure operations comply with the rules.
The error rate in expenditures decreased to 3.6% from 5.6% in 2023.
The ECA highlights, in this field, expenditures related to the RRF, which finances the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), following disbursements of nearly 60 billion euros last year.
For the community auditor, “these irregular expenditures increasingly weigh on the Union’s finances.”
For the sixth consecutive year, the ECA issues an adverse opinion on EU spending, calculating a “significant and widespread” error rate, mainly due to irregular payments in cohesion policy, which reached 5.7% in 2024 compared to 9.3% in the previous year.
Nonetheless, according to the community auditor, the Union’s accounts for 2024 provide a “true and fair view” of the financial situation and revenue operations with no errors.
In his statements to Lusa, João Leão also spoke about the first year and a half in the position, describing it as a period “of dedication, with enthusiasm, to new projects and in a different environment.”
Responsible for areas such as environment, climate action, energy, and agriculture, the official emphasized the “great importance” the ECA will have in discussions on the new EU budget for the period 2028-2034.
