ECA/14/10
Luxembourg, 18 March 2014
European Court of Auditors assessed by peers: significant progress made
A panel of EU Member State auditors, led by the German Bundesrechnungshof (supreme audit institution of Germany) has found that the European Court of Auditors (ECA) achieved significant progress since its first review in 2008. The ECA carries out the European Union’s audit.
The panel, which comprised representatives of the supreme audit institutions of Germany, France and Sweden, concluded that the ECA systematically followed up on the recommendations of the previous peer review of 2008, and has taken a number of steps to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of EU performance audits.
“We are very encouraged by this opinion issued by our peers,” stated Mr Vítor Caldeira, the President of the European Court of Auditors, “and appreciate the peers’ constructive comments which identify opportunities and challenges for us to further strengthen our performance audit practice”.
The peer review made recommendations, identifying opportunities and challenges for the EU’s auditors to further strengthen this EU institution’s performance audit practice. Among them is the need to streamline and speed up decision making and to formulate more practical recommendations that should be clearly addressed to specific bodies at the EU or national level.
The ECA has already taken steps through its 2013 – 2017 strategy to implement a range of initiatives designed to address many of the issues raised in the review.
International peer reviews are encouraged by international auditing standards. They provide an opportunity for supreme audit institutions to obtain a voluntary assessment based on international standards of how they discharge their functions. The peer review draws on the experience of all partners and is a very useful exercise for the reviewers as well as the reviewees . Furthermore, it is based on generally recognised criteria governing the work of supreme audit institutions, and takes into account the guidance set out in the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions.
The full text of the peer review report is available on eca.europa.eu.