Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

In order to enhance cooperation between the ECA and the European Parliament, and its Committee on Budgetary Control in particular, and in keeping with recent developments, a number of approaches could be considered, namely:

- continuing to strengthen information-sharing and to enhance transparency, so that the ECA’s work may be made swiftly and readily available;

- enhancing dialogue between the ECA and the European Parliament, including its Committee on Budgetary Control, in order to exchange audit methodologies and adjust priorities to pressing political and economic concerns, where necessary;

- fostering cooperation in how audits are planned, while ensuring that the ECA’s status as a fully independent institution is respected;

- focusing on communicating results on a broad scale, including to members of parliament and the public as a whole.

16. What do you think is the added value of performance audit? What added value do you think performance auditing brings and how should the findings be incorporated in management procedures?

The added value of audit reports resides in their capacity to offer an in-depth and factual analysis of the results obtained, the methods employed and the processes followed. In this way, they provide clear information to help decision-makers, managers and lawmakers improve the decision-making process, make adjustments to programmes and better meet the needs of the general public.

If performance audit recommendations are to have a genuine impact, they must be systematically and carefully incorporated in management procedures. This involves doing a number of things:

- adapting the legislative framework in order to incorporate good practices and rectify any shortcomings identified by performance audits;

- putting meticulous arrangements in place to follow up on audit recommendations, including clear indicators and specific deadlines;

- engendering a culture of continuous assessment in European public administration, which should include promoting transparency, making managers accountable and encouraging innovation in working practices;

- enhancing dialogue between auditors and managers, in order to promote lessons learned and put them into practice.

Ultimately, performance auditing should not be regarded merely as a necessary formality. Rather, it should be seen as a genuine tool for continuous improvement to help optimise how public funds are used and to engender greater trust in the ability of institutions to provide good quality public services.

17. How could cooperation between the Court of Auditors, the national audit institutions and the European Parliament (Committee on Budgetary Control) on auditing of the EU budget be improved?

Cooperation between the ECA, the national audit institutions and the European Parliament (including its Committee on Budgetary Control) is crucial for ensuring effective, consistent and additional oversight of the EU budget.

Cooperation arrangements are already in place, including the EU Contact Committee, in which both the French Court of Auditors and the ECA play a concerted role. This committee serves as a forum to exchange best practices, coordinate audit activities and prevent duplication in how the public finances of the EU and the Member State are overseen.

To continue enhancing this cooperation, a number of avenues could be explored, namely:

- strengthening the role of the EU Contact Committee, by handing it greater scope with a view to coordinating audit programmes on a more systematic basis and better elucidating reports and recommendations;

- promoting regular and carefully organised exchanges between auditors and MEPs;

- working to ensure that audit results are shared and made widely available, including by using digital platforms to facilitate shared access to information and analysis.

It should also be noted that national and European issues are closely interlinked. As such, an integrated approach to the oversight of public finances is required. In this connection, the 2027 French Court of Auditors annual report will examine how EU funds are used across all areas of government action in France. This underscores a general desire to better understand and appraise relationships between the Member States and the EU.

18. How would you further develop the reporting of the ECA to give the European Parliament all the necessary information on the accuracy of the data provided by the Member States to the European Commission?

In order to enable the European Parliament to fully exercise its supervisory role, the information provided in ECA reports must be clear, complete and accessible. My initial observation would be that ECA audits have improved markedly in recent years and have become increasingly accessible: they now include summaries, press releases and properly ordered information.

To continue these endeavours, ECA reports could explain the methodologies used to confirm that the data obtained is reliable, the possible limitations of such checks, and the exact sources of information gathered from the Member States. Making the ECA’s working methods transparent in this way is crucial to enable MEPs to properly grasp the extent and reliability of report findings.

Furthermore, reports could more explicitly highlight potential risks, irregularities and inconsistencies. In order to facilitate decision-making, this information could be summarised in comparison tables or graphs to enable readers to swiftly identify shortcomings and broad trends.

Alongside these findings, in order to improve the internal procedures used for checking and validating data in the Member States, recommendations should be published that are reasonably straightforward to put into practice.

Other questions

19. Will you withdraw your candidacy if Parliament's opinion on your appointment as Member of the Court is unfavourable?

Having twice served as an MEP, I hold Parliament’s opinion in the utmost esteem. Parliament is a key democratic player in how the EU operates. It is vital that Parliament has confidence in ECA Members. Such trust serves to enhance the independence and credibility of our institution vis-à-vis EU citizens. I will therefore respect the opinion of the Committee on Budgetary Control, and hope that it deems me to have satisfied all of the criteria required of prospective ECA Members, as stipulated by the Treaties.