Investments in greening in the EU recovery fund are €34.5 billion overestimated, according to the European Court of Auditors.
The European Union’s €750 billion post-Covid recovery plan was supposed to, as a priority, accelerate the greening and digitalisation of the continent’s economies. Investments dedicated to the climate transition must represent at least 37% of the sums allocated by the first major European mutualised loan. However, according to a report by the European Court of Auditors published on Monday, part of these funds are subject to “greenwashing”. Namely, passing off as “green” projects that are not very green.
The overvaluation of these green investments would reach « at least » 34.5 billion euros, according to the court, out of a total of 275 billion devoted to the climate transition. The recovery plan « suffers from a high level of approximation in the programmes, as well as from lags between plans and their implementation, and ultimately provides little indication of how much of the money directly benefits the green transition », says Joëlle Elvinger, member of the Court of Auditors and author of the report.
The document cites the example of a water treatment project in Croatia, where the funds allocated were used solely for an IT system that had little to do with the environment. « To achieve their objectives, some countries allocate cost estimates to their projects which are not subject to verification during their implementation. », the court continues. It recommends a more in-depth audit of the massive sums distributed by the European executive.
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