The European Court of Auditors (ECA) criticised the EU Tuesday for widespread waste in a programme worth hundreds of millions of euros in subsidies to shift freight from roads to rail or water.

The environmentally friendly 10-year-old "Marco Polo" policy, with a 400-million-euro budget ($524 million), offers grants to operators willing to switch distribution channels.

However, the scheme should now be scrapped, the Luxembourg-based accountants said, following its assessment.

"To put it simply, the programmes were ineffective as they did not meet the targets, little impact was achieved in shifting freight off the roads and there were no data to assess the achievement of the policy objectives (eg. environmental benefits)," said ECA official Ville Itala in a damning statement.

The programme began in 2003 with a 400-million-euro budget for the period from 2007 to the end of 2013.

The audit also attacked what it classed as "deadweight" incentives -- arguing that 13 of 16 beneficiaries audited "confirmed that they would have started and run the transport service even without a subsidy".

The ECA recommended "discontinuing EU funding for transport freight services following the design of the Marco Polo programmes.

"In future, such funding should depend on an impact assessment at the outset, showing whether and to what extent there is EU added-value."