European Court of Auditors

Most EU countries fail to meet the bloc's air quality standards and more than 1,000 Europeans die prematurely each day, ten times more than in road accidents, a watchdog said Tuesday.

Greek highways are very expensive and poorly planned, according to a report by the European Court of Auditors on public-private partnerships (PPPs) and concession contracts, concluding that new PPPs should not be encouraged in cases where problems remain unsolved.

The European Central Bank has "flaws" in its procedures for identifying and dealing with banks in crisis, European Union auditors said on Tuesday.

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) insists it had the right to look into the role of the European Central Bank in Greek bailouts, based on the Lisbon Treaty and a European Parliament resolution, and is now seeking ways to access the documents the ECB has refused to hand over.

Two very different reports concerning Greece and its bailout programs were published by European institutions last week.

The three bailout programs applied since 2010 "only helped Greece to recover to a limited extent," while all of them lacked a growth strategy for the economy, according to a report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) on the Greek bailouts issued on Thursday.

The European Central Bank (ECB) challenged an attempt by the European Court of Auditors (ECA), the watchdog of EU finances, to examine the Bank’s role in the Greek bailout and reform programmes and refused to provide access to some requested information, citing banking confidentiality.

The European Union's handling of three bailout programs for Greece during the eurozone's financial crisis had several weaknesses and was only partly successful, European auditors said on Thursday.

Turkey has received almost €1 billion from the EU to support rule of law, civil society, fundamental rights, democracy and governance.

A European Commission spokesperson told EUobserver earlier this month some €979.6 million was paid out between 2007 and April this year with more likely to come given Turkey’s continued candidacy for EU membership.

Bulgaria is among the countries without any mistakes in the management of projects under the cohesion policy of the EU, showed the annual report of the European Court of Auditors on the implementation of the European budget for 2015, presented to the Council of Ministers by the Bulgarian representative in the institution Iliana Ivanova.