E.U. Auditors Claim Five Billion Euros Were Wasted From Budgets

Message to politicians: must try harder

The European authorities misspent as much as 5 billion euro of taxpayers' money last year, auditors discovered during a recent review, and called policy makers for "a greater degree of commitment" on budget spending.

The European Court of Auditors revealed that 3.9% of 2011 budget payments were provided to projects that didn't comply with EU or national legislation, such as environmentally unfriendly farming or research not linked to a specific project, the Wall Street Journal reported. Misspending in the EU budget of 2011 is 0.2% more than in 2010, also it it's almost twice the auditor's target of 2%.