The annual meeting of representatives from supreme audit institutions of the Visegrád Group, Austria, and Slovenia (V4+2)
Press Release - 21.9.2012
On September 6–7, 2012, an annual meeting of representatives from the supreme audit institutions of Austria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic (V4+2) took place in Lovasberény, Hungary.
The role of auditing in raising environmental awareness and the independence of supreme audit institutions were on the agenda of this year’s meeting. It has become a tradition to discuss the latest developments in the EU at the V4+2 meetings. Participants of the meeting also paid attention to the in-progress and planned joint auditing projects performed within the frame of the V4+2 Group.
During the meeting, top representatives of supreme audit institutions of the V4+2 Group elaborated a communiqué appealing for better use of environmental auditing within the public sector on national and international levels. The audits will be realized in a way that would make it possible to improve the management of environmental programmes, increase knowledge of environmental issues, and help to improve the quality of the environment as well as the population’s health. The document will be submitted to the approval of the Contact Committee (at the meeting of top representatives of the supreme audit institutions of the EU countries and European Court of Auditors), which is to be held in October 2012 in Portugal. Afterwards, individual supreme audit institutions will hand the communiqué over to national parliaments and governments of member states of the European Union.
Representatives of supreme audit institutions also discussed topics related to the current development in the European Union. Participants discussed future possibilities for cooperation among the supreme audit institutions and national statistic offices and were informed about the latest development within the field of non-financial tools implemented to tackle the European debt crisis as well as about the introduction of the results-oriented budgeting.
Representatives from the Slovenian supreme audit institution presented the outcome of the working group, which had been concerned with elaborating the audit manual on the role of supreme audit institutions in tackling fraud and corruption. The SAO has been an active member of this working group as well.
Last but not least, the delegates discussed projects aimed at cross-border co-operation programmes, which have been implemented in the frame of the EU’s regional policy. Representatives of the audit institutions debated their up-to-now experience with audits of operational programmes at national and international levels as well as possibilities of future co-operation among the supreme audit institutions of the V4+2 countries.
The next meeting of representatives from supreme audit institutions of the Visegrád Group, Austria, and Slovenia is going to take place in 2013 in Slovenia.
Department of International Relations
Supreme Audit Office
Representatives of supreme audit institutions of the Visegrád Group, Austria, and Slovenia (V4+2) - Hungary, September 2012