The EU needs to pay more attention to achieving results from the billions of euro in funding it provides, according to the European Court of Auditors.

In its report for 2013 out yesterday it said the money should be managed more carefully as under the current system it seemed there was too much focus on the need to spend the funds rather than spending them well.

Though the ECA has signed off the EU’s accounts, it stressed that the management of EU spending was not yet good enough both at EU and member state level.

The court said that throughout the 2007-2013 period, priority was given to spending the money on a ‘use it or lose it’ system rather than achieving good results.

For instance, the choice of pro-jects for the receipt of funds focused first on disbursing the money available, secondly on complying with the rules, and only then on the results and impact.

“From now on there has to be more careful management and control of EU funds,” Vitor Caldeira, president of the ECA, said at a press conference.

He said the European Commission and the member states must pay more attention to how they spend taxpayers’ money.

The auditors signed off on the reliability of the EU accounts. They also concluded that the collection of EU revenue was free from error.

Under EU rules member states receive funds from the EU budget according to their economic level. Between 2007 and 2013 Malta was allocated €855 million of funds. They have to be spent on eligible projects by the end of 2015.