European Court of Auditors issues adverse opinion on 2025 EDF development spending

The European Court of Auditors has issued an adverse opinion on the legality and regularity of expenditure under the 9th, 10th and 11th European Development Funds (EDF) for the financial year ended 31 December 2025. The independent auditor’s report, published in the Official Journal of the European Union C series of 8 October 2026 under reference C/2026/5254, estimates an overall level of error of 10.5% in the expenditure accepted in the accounts. The accounts themselves and the revenue underlying them received clean opinions.

The statement of assurance is addressed to the European Parliament and the Council and was signed on 2 July 2026 by Tony Murphy, President of the European Court of Auditors, at the institution’s seat in Luxembourg. The audited accounts — balance sheet, statement of financial performance, cash flow statement, statement of changes in net assets and report on financial implementation — were approved by the European Commission on 22 June 2026.

The EDF, launched in 1959, was the main instrument for EU development cooperation with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states and overseas countries and territories, financed by voluntary contributions from member states and governed by its own financial regulation.

• 9th EDF: 2000-2007, now in the final stage of closure, with four contracts still running.
• 10th EDF: 2008-2013, overall budget of EUR 22 682 million.
• 11th EDF: 2014-2020, EUR 30 506 million; its sunset clause took effect on 31 December 2020.
• Since 2021, cooperation with ACP states has been funded through the EU budget under the NDICI-Global Europe instrument.

Clean accounts, adverse opinion on spending

The Court found that the annual accounts of the three funds present fairly their financial position as at 31 December 2025, in accordance with the EDF Financial Regulation and with internationally accepted public-sector accounting standards. Revenue was also judged legal and regular in all material respects.

On expenditure, however, the auditors concluded that the accepted expenditure is materially affected by error, describing the effects of the errors found as both material and pervasive to the year’s accepted expenditure. The statement of assurance does not extend to EDF resources managed by the European Investment Bank, pursuant to Articles 43, 48-50 and 58 of the Financial Regulation applicable to the 11th EDF.

Error rate of 10.5% and accrued charges

The overall estimated level of error for expenditure accepted in the accounts of the three funds is 10.5%. The Court also examined accrued charges, which are subject to a high degree of estimation: at year-end 2025 the European Commission estimated that eligible expenses incurred but not yet reported by beneficiaries amounted to EUR 3 195 million, down from EUR 3 885 million at year-end 2024. A sample of 20 pre-financing payments and 19 invoices recorded but not yet checked led the auditors to conclude that the accrued charges recognised in the final accounts were appropriate.

The Court also changed its methodology for quantifying the impact of public procurement errors, aligning it with the approach applied by the Commission to shared-management spending programmes under the general budget; the estimated impact is set out in paragraph 33 of its annual report.

A fund winding down

The 2025 financial year reflects the progressive closure of the EDFs. Net payments of EUR 893 million were made under the 10th and 11th EDFs, while gross payments reached EUR 949.98 million, 95% of the EUR 1 000 million target communicated to member states. Operational expenditure fell by EUR 194 million, mainly because spending under the 11th EDF dropped from EUR 1 145 million in 2024 to EUR 953 million in 2025.

The Commission’s annual accounts for the EDF were published in the same edition of the Official Journal under reference C/2026/4817, alongside the Court’s statement of assurance on the EU’s consolidated accounts for 2025 (C/2026/5256), which reports an overall error rate of 3.8% for budget expenditure.

The adverse opinion matters because the EDF accounts feed directly into the annual discharge procedure: the Council recommends and the European Parliament decides whether to grant discharge to the Commission for the financial implementation of EDF resources. With an error rate above 10% and the funds in their closing phase, the finding puts renewed scrutiny on how the Commission and its partners verify development aid spending before the remaining contracts are wound up.

Source: Official Journal of the European Union, C series, 8 October 2026, notices (official reference: C/2026/5254).