European Court of Auditors (ECA)
European Court of Auditors (ECA)
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) is the external auditor of European Union (EU) funds. Its mission is to assess whether institutions of the EU discharge their functions well, whether EU funds are managed in accordance with given rules and the principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness.
The ECA operates as a collegiate body of 28 Members, one from each Member State. The Members are appointed by the European Council after consultation with the European Parliament for a renewable term of six years. Mr Jan Kinšt, former Member of the Board of the SAO, was appointed as Member of the ECA for the Czech Republic after the country's accession to the EU in May 2004. Mr Jan Gregor who worked as a Deputy Minister of Finance of the Czech Republic for more than five years, took over the membership at the ECA in May 2016.
Cooperation with the ECA dates back to 1993 when the SAO was established. The ECA participated significantly on institutional and capacity building of the SAIs of the candidate countries preparing them for accession to the EU. The ECA initiated and coordinated mutual cooperation, organized seminars, and professional trainings, including long-term in-house training at the ECA.
The Treaty on European Union states that the ECA and SAIs of the Member States shall cooperate in the spirit of trust while maintaining their respective independence. Audit missions of the ECA in the EU Member States serve as an example of such cooperation. The SAO participates as an expert and observer throughout the process of both audit preparation and realisation in the Czech Republic or on coordinated audits between the SAO and the ECA.
The SAO and the ECA also cooperate by enabling and promoting secondments, an institute that enables a usually time-limited work placement of auditors from SAIs (also called national experts) at international organizations. Till now, four national experts from the SAO worked at the ECA.
On multilateral level, cooperation of the SAO and the ECA is performed especially within the activities of the Contact Committee.