EU likely exaggerating climate-friendly spending, auditors say

The EU is exaggerating spending on climate-friendly projects, potentially by billions of euros, the bloc's auditors said on Wednesday, citing examples of countries claiming spending on IT systems and salaries as green.

The 27-country EU has pledged to spend at least 37% of its 700 billion euro ($774 bln) COVID-19 recovery fund, comprising loans and grants, on measures to address climate change.

By the EU's own estimate, countries have exceeded that goal and by February had earmarked 275 billion euros, 42.5% of the funds allocated so far, on investments to help meet green goals.

That figure may be overestimating the EU's green spending by at least 34.5 billion euros, the auditors said.

The European Court of Auditors' analysis found EU countries had labelled numerous projects as green despite having only a tenuous link. They included IT systems to...