In a report published on Thursday, 3 April, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) found that the use of funds allocated for the digital transition in the ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’ (RRF) was “not always effective”, particularly with regard to the projects supported.
The ECA’s report notably criticises the programme for “lack[ing] strategic focus”: “Thus, some Member States devoted smaller shares of their RRF funding to areas where they were underperforming, thereby reducing the RRF’s potential to contribute to the digital transition effectively,” [the audit team] writes.
The ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’ (RRF) came into force in February 2021—having €650 billion to help Member States implement reforms and investments.
It is providing up to €150 billion in funding for the European digital transition, that being around two-thirds of the total €235 billion budget that the EU has earmarked for digital for the 2021–2027 period.
The auditors point to a “conceptual ambiguity” in the RRF Regulation—an ambiguity that has “hampered targeted use of the funds in the Member States”.
The ECA believes that the performance framework and indicators used to monitor progress were not properly aligned with those of the EU’s current digital strategy, which limited their ability to measure the contribution that reforms and investments made to the digital transition.
“[B]road, misaligned progress indicators”, they write, “significantly [limit] the ability to accurately measure the contribution of the RRF reforms and investments to the digital transition”.
In addition, several Member States used European funds to strengthen the edge they have in certain specific sectors instead of addressing areas where they have shortcomings.
The ECA also points to “delays” in implementing projects—and thus declared objectives—as well as a “low share” of multi-country projects (60 measures out of more than 1,000 supporting digital technology).
The ECA recommends that the European Commission ensure that future funding programmes for objectives related to the digital transition really address the main needs, with a performance framework that is properly aligned with the declared objectives.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/g9e (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)