More than 5 billion euros ($4.85 billion) of European Union funds were misspent last year, the bloc's auditors said on Thursday, as national authorities often made mistakes in allocating the money while cases of suspect fraud increased.
In its annual report, the European Court of Auditors (ECA), which is responsible for assessing the EU budget, estimated that an average of 3% of last year's 181.5-billion-euro spending was irregular, up from 2.7% the previous year.
