​​The EU has missed its self-imposed target of spending at least 20% of its 2014-2020 budget on climate action, according to a special report published today by the European Court of Auditors (ECA). The European Commission had announced that the EU had met the 20% target, reporting that it had spent €216 billion on climate action. However, the auditors found that the reported spending was not always relevant to climate action, and that the amount reported as having been spent for that purpose had been overstated by at least €72 billion. The auditors also fear that reliability issues could remain in the Commission's reporting for the 2021-2027 period, when the EU’s new climate spending target will rise to 30%.

“Addressing climate change is a key priority for the EU, which has set itself challenging climate and energy objectives”, said Joëlle Elvinger, the ECA member who led the audit. “We found that in 2014-2020, not all the reported climate-related spending under the EU budget was actually relevant to climate action. That is why we make several recommendations to better link the EU’s expenditure to its climate and energy objectives. For instance, we recommend that the Commission should justify the climate relevance of agricultural funding.”