1. EUROPEAN COURT OF AUDITORS JULIA LINARES

2. BACKGROUND The European Court of Auditors was established by the Treaty of Brussels of 22 July 1975. The Court started operating as an external Community audit body in October 1977, with its headquarters in Luxembourg. Since the Treaty of Maastricht the European Court of Auditors has been recognised as one of the five institutions of the European Communities. Under the constitutional system the auditing function normally takes two separate but complementary forms, known respectively as internal control and external auditing. The setting-up of the European Court of Auditors followed this same reasoning.

3. MISSION The European Court of Auditors is the EU Institution established by the Treaty to carry out the audit of EU finances. As the EU's external auditor it contributes to improving EU financial management and acts as the independent guardian of the financial interests of the citizens of the Union. The Court renders audit services through which it assesses the collection and spending of EU funds. It examines whether financial operations have been properly recorded and disclosed, legally and regularly executed and managed. The Court communicates the results of its audits in clear, relevant and objective reports. It also provides its opinion on financial management issues.

4. ORGANISATION The Treaty of Nice of 1 February 2003 confirmed the principle that there should be one Member from each Member State, allowed the Court the option of being organised in chambers and highlighted the importance of the Court's cooperation with the national audit bodies. The actual president is Vítor Manuel da Silva Caldeira and the secretary general is Michel Hervé. It’s divided into groups: the preservation and management of natural resources; the structural policies, transport, research and energy; external actions; internal policies; coordination, communication, evaluation, assurance and development; and the administrative committee. There are from 3-5 people in each group. It consists of 27 members (one for each country) designated by the Council for a renewable term of six years. Members select a President among themselves for a period of three years.

5. COOPERATION WITH THE SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS The European Court of Auditors (ECA), as the EU's external audit institution, seeks good contacts and working relations with similar organisations all over the world. Particular attention is given to the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in Europe, where cooperation with SAIs of EU Member States and EU candidate and potential candidate countries are especially important. The objective of this cooperation is closely linked to the Court's responsibility for the audit of EU funds. The ECA applies generally accepted international public sector auditing standards and international cooperation provides valuable opportunities to exchange views and experiences on their use.

6. AUDIT Court Audit Policy and Standards sets out the principles and norms considered by the Court to be fundamental in ensuring the quality of its audit work and reports, thus providing a framework for all audits performed by the Court. The Treaty requires the ECA to examine all Community revenue and expenditure and to publish its opinion annually. To this end the Court issues a Statement of Assurance, which is generally known by its French acronym DAS (Déclaration d'Assurance). The DAS is the Court's formal opinion on the reliability of the EU accounts and on the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. Its aim is to provide stakeholders, mainly the European Parliament and the Council but also EU citizens, with an audit opinion on whether EU money has been properly spent in accordance with Community law and reliably recorded in the annual consolidated accounts of the European Communities.

7. AVAILABLE INFORMATION MATERIAL (general brochure)