Landscape review
EU accountability and
public audit
arrangements
Mr. Kevin Cardiff
Reporting Member (ECA)
Mr. Jacques Sciberras
Project team leader
ECA Conference, Brussels
14th October 2014
A complex EU accountability landscape
• ECA
AUDIT
• SAIs, national, regional auditors
• Audit Boards and Committees
SCRUTINY
• Private External Auditors
• Internal Auditors incl. Cion
Actors
Accountability to:
•
Commission
• 750+ MEPs
•
Parliament
•
Council
•
European Council
•
ECB
•
ECA
•
ECJ
•
Committees
•
> 40 agencies
•
EIB & EIF
•
Partnerships of many
• European Council
and Council
Actor
Forum for
accountability
(10 configurations)
• 9,500 national
parliamentarians
• Regional
Governments &
Parliaments
• >500 million people
kinds
•
National, regional,
local authorities
•
Beneficiaries – 8
million for CAP alone
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Situation
EU accountability is a complex,
enormous industry…
no surprise to hear that there are Gaps,
Overlaps, or Deficits
Questions addressed?
EU
Executive
Parliament
EU
What is in and what
is out?
Who
is accountable and
for what?
Accountable to who?
Parliament?
Who is the auditor?
Strong audit
mandate?
Does auditor report
to Parliament?
Audit
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6 areas facing challenges
Intergovernmental activities
involve EU institutions, but rely on
fragmented scrutiny
Coordinated
activities
EU
institutional setup
Europe 2020, European Semester, TSCG, ESM
Different groups of MS participating in
different policy areas require complex
governance and scrutiny structures
Institutions, Agencies, JUs, ECB, EIB
Multi-speed
arrangements
Management
of the EU budget
Euro and Eurozone, Schengen area
Audit limited to stage where funds paid over.
Scrutiny depends on quality of partners
own governance and accountability
systems
UN, World Bank, PPPs, 3rd Countries
Institutions, bodies and agencies have
inconsistent and disproportionate
levels of audit and parliamentary
scrutiny
Particularly for expenditure under shared
management frontline governance and
scrutiny remains weak at MS level
Shared Management in MS
Partnerships
Results
of non-budgetary
instruments
Strategies, laws and regulations require a
comprehensive form of assessment of
impact, outcomes and results
Ex-post assessments, Laws, Regulations, etc
EU response to financial crisis
Crisis of
confidence
Economic
crisis
Euro crisis
Sovereign
debt crisis
Europe 2020
growth
strategy
Banking
crisis
Financial
support
mechanisms
Banking
Union
Economic and
Monetary
Union (Fiscal
Union?)
Political
response
Impact of crisis response
More and new:
• bodies and structures with different arrangements
• uses of and demands on existing structures
• sets of rules
• mix of EU and non-EU instruments
Public perceptions of EU (and national) systems
damaged
5 tracks for reflection
Collaborative
scrutiny
More collaborative scrutiny between Parliaments and auditors for
coordinated activities and intergovernmental instruments
Consistent and
comprehensive
arrangements
Better MS level scrutiny
More focus on results
Less audit overlaps
More consistent arrangements across EU policy areas,
institutions/bodies, and instruments.
Ensure full scope to oversee and audit
Improve frontline (MS) management, governance,
scrutiny and audit
Especially for intergovernmental or nonbudgetary EU policies
Explore all opportunities to avoid
duplication of audits and for auditors to
rely on the work of one another
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Way forward
• No simple solutions
A
• Engage actors at all levels: local, member state, regional, EU and more
• Address existing problems
• Build new initiatives with accountability in mind – use known models where
possible
A loss of citizens trust occurs when…
Powers and Complexity of the EU
are out of balance with the
Accountability and Legitimacy of the EU
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Citizens trust is restored when…
A NEW
ACCOUNTABILITY EQUILIBRIUM
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