Europe needs a strong Court of Auditors

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) was established to audit the EU's finances. As the tasks of the Union have grown, it is also of growing importance to closely follow how taxpayers' money is spent. This is why the European Parliament drafted a Report on the future role of the European Court of Auditors.

Keeping a strong ECA as provided by the Treaty

The Report adopted in the Strasbourg plenary session was a clear statement in favour of keeping the ECA strong with its auditing toolkit and not endangering its future development. An alternative Motion for Resolution tabled by the S&D Rapporteur was defeated during the vote by 355 votes against 313.

“I am very happy that the European Parliament has recommended that the European Court of Auditors keeps the competences given to it by the Treaty. It is also very pleasing to note that all the ideas brought forward by the EPP Group Members of the Budgetary Control Committee were accepted”, commented the EPP Group Shadow Rapporteur, Jean-Pierre Audy MEP, on the outcome of the vote.

Ingeborg Gräßle MEP, EPP Group Coordinator in the Budgetary Control Committee stressed the need for a stronger European Court of Auditors: “The role of the Court of Auditors is crucial for better and smarter spending of European funds. The Report adopted in plenary is an essential milestone. Key elements of the EPP Group’s vision for the Court’s future have convinced Parliament. I was surprised that the S&D Group tabled an alternative Resolution when all their Members voted in favour in the committee vote.”

Declaration of Assurance – an important tool

The Budgetary Control Committee adopted a Resolution back in December that stressed the continued importance of the Treaty-bound ‘Declaration of Assurance’ (DAS), the yearly statement ECA provides to Parliament and Council following its audits as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions, as an important tool for the Court.

The Committee also underlined the need to review the remuneration of the Members of the Court, but also to have as many Members of the Court as there are Members of the European Commission.

Avoiding the weakening of the Court of Auditors

The alternative Resolution tabled on behalf of the S&D Group tried to weaken the text on a number of points.

The EPP Group successfully prevented the endeavours of the S&D Group to:

• delete a text which recommends the Court to build upon the DAS model when they put more resources into the performance audit work (Art 8);
• insert an article that encouraged the Court to present a deontological code for the protection of the rights of the audited entities that would prolong the performance of audit and DAS procedures unnecessarily (Art 21 new);
• delete the text that expresses the wish that the Court should in future not only publish the Commission’s comments on its findings, but clearly express a final counter reply (Art 27);
• delete the text where the Committee had asked for the Court to regularly communicate statistics on the presence of Members at its seat in Luxembourg (Art 28);
• ask for a review of the Treaty with the aim of reducing the number of Members of the Court of Auditors (Art 38);
• lower the acceptable age of candidates from 67 at the end of their first mandate to 65 (Art 41).