Brussels is once again under the scrutiny of its own auditors. The Finnish member of the European Court of Auditors, Petri Sarvamaa, has warned that the increasingly opaque way in which the European Commission manages its day-to-day affairs—particularly the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028–2034—“could fuel Euroscepticism.”
The warning comes from within the EU’s own institutions and points to a growing centralization of power in Brussels and a lack of accountability toward both other European bodies and citizens.
Sarvamaa, a member of the European People’s Party (EPP), explained in an interview that the draft budget of more than two trillion euros “reduces the number of controls and audit mechanisms” overseeing how European funds are spent. “If we are wasting money or don’t know where it went, EU voters will not be satisfied,” he said. For the auditor, budgetary opacity is not a technical issue but a major political risk, as it undermines public trust in the European project.
The European Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen, has defended its plan as a reform aimed at “simplifying and improving efficiency” in the use of common funds. However, the Court of Auditors warns that the new model dilutes oversight mechanisms and makes it harder to identify the final beneficiaries of EU spending. “It’s not really clear what we’re getting for the money—there is no traceability,” Sarvamaa stressed, accusing the Commission of “playing with words” when it speaks of a “performance-based” or “results-based” budget.
The auditor cautioned that administrative simplification can easily become a pretext to reduce democratic oversight. Read between the lines, and his message cuts to the core of the issue: it is not external crises—wars, energy shocks, or climate emergencies—that erode trust in the EU, but rather how Brussels manages its own power.
European regions have also raised concerns. They fear that the new budgetary architecture will leave all key decisions in the hands of national governments—or worse, the Commission itself—marginalizing local authorities that best understand regional needs. “Those fears are quite understandable,” Sarvamaa acknowledged.
According to the auditors, the model resembles the post-pandemic recovery fund, an instrument described as “opaque and error-prone,” with €300 billion still unspent. “The more money is wasted, the higher the error rate—it’s almost a natural law,” warned the Finnish official, pointing to what he sees as a systemic flaw in EU governance.
Sarvamaa’s statements go beyond figures: they also deliver a political warning. If the Commission continues to act without transparency or clear checks and balances, it will feed precisely what it claims to fear most—the rise of Euroscepticism. Every step toward deeper integration without proper accountability turns the European institutions into a bureaucratic machine increasingly detached from the citizens it claims to serve.
