Editor’s Note
This report from the EU’s financial watchdog reveals significant delays and cost overruns in major infrastructure projects designed to better connect the continent. It raises critical questions about project management and financial oversight for these ambitious, taxpayer-funded initiatives.
A series of European Union-funded “megaprojects” aimed at better connecting the continent are running well behind schedule and significantly over-budget, according to a watchdog report.
From the Lyon-Turin rail link to the Canal Seine Nord waterway, an EU goal to complete a group of cross-border links by 2030 “will not be met,” according to a report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
said the ECA’s Annemie Turtelboom.
The ECA audited eight projects forming the backbone of EU plans to boost road, rail, water, and air transport across the 27-nation bloc in a bid to spur trade and economic growth.
Touching 13 countries including Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, France and Italy, the projects have received 15.3 billion euros ($17.8 billion) in EU funding and accumulated on average a 17-year delay, the auditors found.
This was down to a series of challenges, such as unexpected technical issues as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine, it said.
Meanwhile costs have ballooned.
Not considering inflation, the overall price tag for the projects analysed was up 82 percent on the original estimates, the report said.