The EU’s net financial worth plunges through MINUS €9 trillion mark for the first time

EU loses €400bn in value in the last 12 months

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2025

It is always clear that the news coming out of Brussels is bad when it is accompanied by an anodyne headline. Another key giveaway is when the Commission itself fails to comment. Yesterday, the EU Commission’s official statistics body, Eurostat, released its quarterly update on the state of the EU’s finances.

Here was the headline:

“Government finance statistics: net financial worth”

That was it. No qualifier, such as “impressive”, or even “Despite negative global headwinds…” and there was no attempt to try to find good news somewhere in all of the myriad of statistics to crow about. This is highly unusual.

We then scoured the media for any mention of this news, but only came up with something from the Bank of Cyprus – and that only related to the tiny island itself, which is a tiny fraction of the EU’s overall economy.

Here, then, is a Facts4EU world exclusive

We are not being serious of course, but in any event we thought readers might be interested to know the headline figures. We start with a simple explainer.

The general government financial accounts cover transactions in financial assets and liabilities as well as the stock of financial assets and liabilities. The difference between the stock of financial assets and the stock of liabilities is called net financial worth.

The latest results show a continuing, downward trend

At the end of the second quarter of 2025, the EU net financial worth stood at -€9 024 billion or -49.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP). This is the first time the EU’s net financial worth has broken through MINUS €9 trillion.

Compared with the end of the first quarter of 2025, the EU net financial worth decreased by -€172 billion. Compared with the end of the second quarter a year earlier, the EU net financial worth had decreased by -€396 billion.

In very simple terms, the EU is worth €400 billion less than it was worth a year ago.

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Reasons for the fall

The net financial worth can change due to transactions or other economic flows (mainly price changes, also known as holding gains or losses). The main financial instrument of liabilities on the EU general governments’ balance sheets is debt securities. As these instruments are traded on the financial markets, their value changes over time and can be volatile.

At the end of the second quarter of 2025, the continued EU general government deficit, as measured from the balance of the financial accounts (net financial transactions, equalling transactions in financial assets minus transactions in liabilities, -€100 billion), contributed negatively to the evolution of net financial worth.

The other major contribution to the deterioration of the EU general government net financial worth were other economic flows (mainly revaluations) in general government debt securities at market value (+€98 billion, contributing to the increase in the stock of liabilities).

Observations

The figures above were accompanied by a suite of related statistics, most of which are of a highly technical nature. Fortunately for the EU, the only member of our extended team suitably qualified to comment on matters of high finance is currently unavailable, so we hesitate to offer our opinions.

The one matter we would draw attention to is the increased overall indebtedness of the EU. This started taking off in the COVID era, then recovered a little but now seems back onto its worsening trend. In its report, the EU’s statisticians refer to this as one of the contributory factors. From what we know of the EU Commission’s plans over the next seven years, this looks set to get a great deal worse.

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[ Sources: EU Commission (Eurostat) ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wed 22 Oct 2025

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Reader Comments 9

1. Gary B , Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 09:01:

And Reeves and Starmer want us back in it

2. Mr Sceptic , Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 10:20:

Monthly interest payments on UK government debt were on average £4 bln for 2016. It ballooned to £9 bln for 2023.
This highlights that Brexit has increased our economic vulnerability against fiscal shocks like the pandemic and the global inflation/energy crisis.
Facts4EU can put up smokescreens and mirror … the British people can join the dots.

3. KB , Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 10:45:

Here's a tip for Facts4EU: have a look at the size of the pension funds for each country.
If you do that, the UK does not look so bankrupt as we often think it is.
But with the honourable exception of the Netherlands, EU countries don't look so good.

4. Gazzablack , Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 11:17:

2, septic
.
Wel! I wonder what events could have happened in between times to cause it.
.
It's not as if there WAS a global pandemic that resulted in an extended lockdown of the economy is it?
..
Actually the UK economy is not more vulnerable to such shocks, but it is more resilient in the face of them.

5. NH , Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 11:20:

2. Sceptic
Did you sleep through the pandemic lockdowns and the Russian invasion ?
.
We did not actually leave the EU fully until the beginning of 2021 and our debt levels as a % of GDP were slightly higher then than they are now. Since 2020 interest cost for all major economies have increased at similar rates by appro 300 to 400 base points. The UK has been slightly more effected because our debt structure is more index linked and short term. All this means is the UK has had to adjust to global market conditions earlier than other nations but they will also be effected by a similar amount during the next 4 years.
.
The vast majority of our national debt contracts were taken out while we were in the EU and if we were still in the EU they would be exactly the same as they are now. The Labour Government could have easily reduced the cost of present debt if they had continued with the Conservative policy of reducing spending, but's that's not their priority.

6. Gazzablack , Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 12:21:

Here's an interesting point from Tom Harwood.
.
Imagine no Brexit vote then a messy 2020 election (hung parliament, big UKIP seat gains,) then BAM - Covid,. EU vaccine procurement.
Even less political direction, Ukraine, energy inflation, crazy global migration patterns.
.
Kessler than the decade we've had

7. Sparky , Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 16:08:

“Net worth”. That common metric that is always in the news! It must have been a light bulb moment at Facts4EU when they stumbled on this one.
.
The ONS publish a similar measure for the UK economy. A chart with a trend line clearly shows as you would expect a steep fall in 2008 with the financial crash. This is followed by a gradual recovery until 2016, then guess what. Yes you guessed correctly a gradual decline since 2016 until the last year.

8. Mr Sceptic , Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 18:05:

At least the UK government has now admitted that the 2020 Brexit deal has caused long-term damage to our economy … something most of us have known for quite some time.

9. Gazzablack , Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 19:15:

8, septic
.
You know nowt lad.
Labour are just making excuses for their own incompetence.
.
7, sparkless
.
The economies of the major EU countries are in a worse state than the UK, and there's a simple reason why:
.
Since the UK left the EU, France has had to pay between €28 billion and €30 billion EACH YEAR towards the EU's budget of €1.21 trillion plus €800 billion for the "next generation EU recovery fund"
France has paid the EU a total of between €140 billion and €150 billion in the five years since the UK left.
.
Germany has paid between €36 billion and €38 billion EACH YEAR, totalling between €180 billion and €190 billion over the five years since the UK left.
.
These astronomical sums were paid under the current EU budget which runs from 2021 to 2027.
The next budget 2028 to 2034 is expected to be much higher.
.
In what universe does anyone think that adding an additional layer of overpaid government in Brussels would increase any country's net revenue.
.
Had the UK remained in it would have been paid in excess of £120 billion to the EU
.
Furthermore
When the UK was a member, the EU budget had a ceiling of 1.2% of EU Gross National Income - and Since we left this has increased twice, first to 1.4% in 2021 and now to 2% (nearly double what it was in 2016)

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