The European Court of Auditors and Its Relationship with the European Parliament: The Changing Nature of Inter-Institutional Power Relations Regarding Financial Accountability

The European Court of Auditors is currently undergoing reform. It is reconsidering not only the many internal roles and responsibilities but also its relationship with other institutions. In December 2013 it adopted a new communications and stakeholder strategy.  Thereafter it appointed a Member for Institutional Relations (MIR) to be engaged in bolstering the Court’s official level representation in Brussels. Traditionally, the Court has had strong relations with the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee (CONT), the committee largely responsible, in its earlier guise of Committee on Budgets, for pushing to create the independent Court in 1977. Thus, over almost 40 years the CONT committee has been the arena in which the Court’s work (annual report on the EU budget, annual reports on the EU institutions and agencies, and increasingly, special reports) has been discussed. As such, it has largely played a ‘gate-keeping role’. The Court is now seeking to coordinate and manage its relations with other EP committees so that it can target its special reports to the appropriate policy committees. It is also seeking to establish links with the Council Secretariat in an attempt to maximize the impact of its work and to better influence decision-making. For many years the Court has been frustrated by the limited attention given by the Council to its findings – arguably greater scrutiny by the executive, as well as legislature, will lead to better policy and enhanced financial accountability. This paper examines the intra- and inter-institutional implications of this ongoing reform process.