European Court of Auditors Releases Special Report on Recovery and Resilience Facility Support for the EU’s Digital Transition
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has released a Special Report 13/2025 titled: “Support from the Recovery and Resilience Facility for the Digital Transition in EU Member States – A Missed Opportunity for Strategic Focus on Digital Needs.”
The ECA criticized the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) for not fully leveraging its potential to drive digital transformation. Although all EU member states dedicated at least 20% of their RRF budgets—around €150 billion—to digital initiatives, many failed to prioritize their most critical digital gaps. The report highlights that the RRF’s regulatory framework did not clearly define “digital transition,” enabling countries to invest in areas where they were already advanced instead of focusing on key deficiencies.
Implementation delays have slowed digital progress under the RRF. In audited countries, nearly half of the reviewed targets faced delays, and cross-border projects received just 3.3% of digital funding, limiting EU-wide innovation. Additionally, weak performance tracking, with inconsistent and inaccurate indicators, has made it difficult to measure the true impact of RRF investments on digital transformation.
In view of this, the ECA recommended that future EU funding programs should establish clearer digital priorities, set more ambitious project milestones, and implement a stronger performance framework. Without these improvements, the RRF’s potential to drive Europe’s digital transformation will remain unrealized.
For more information, see the ECA’s report.