Did you get in? I've heard bureaucracy is insane

August 29, 2026 · Restorative · 2 min read

People ask if the EU funding process is bureaucratically insane. It is, and that's the point. An easy way to get free money to build a to-do list would be absurd.

Every time public funding comes up, I get the same two questions in one breath. Did you get in, and isn't the bureaucracy insane?

The second half is the one worth answering. It is insane. And that's the point.

Free money to build a to-do list

There's a guy on the internet arguing he won't apply for EU money because the process is bureaucratically insane. Forms, evidence, a budget broken down per work package, a written account of what happens if it works and what happens if it doesn't.

An "easy" way to get "free" money to build a to-do list is absurd. That money is someone's tax contribution, pooled and pointed at the things that don't get built otherwise.

Do you honestly expect a pat on the back, the money handed over, with "we trust you, now go make the world a better place"?

The forms are the filter

The application asks what you're doing, who it's for, what it costs, and how anyone would know whether it worked. Four questions. If you can't put those in writing, a grant was never going to fix what's actually wrong.

I've watched impact organisations find their own gaps halfway through an application, because filling it in was the first time anyone made them write the answers down. Most of the value lands right there, before a single euro does.

The complaint about bureaucracy is usually a complaint about being asked to be specific. Public money should be difficult to get. The alternative is public money that's easy to get, and we all know what that funds.

Yes, the process is heavy, and some of that weight is genuine waste. Plenty of it is the room asking you to prove you thought about this for longer than a weekend.

Open the form for the fund you've been avoiding and answer those four questions on your own time. You'll learn more about your plan than any evaluator will.