Europaudvalget 2017-18
EUU Alm.del Bilag 43
Offentligt
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J
OURNAL
European Court of Auditors
N
o
10
October 2017
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PRODUCTION
Rédacteur en chef / Editor in Chief:
Gaston Moonen
Tél. / tel.:
00352 4398 - 45716
E-mail :
[email protected]
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Layout, distribution :
Direction de la Présidence -
Directorate of the Presidency
Photos :
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© ECA
Past editions of the Journal
can be found on ECA’s website:
http://eca.europa.eu/en/Pages/
Journal.aspx
© European Union, 2017
Reproduction autorisée à
condition de mentionner
la source/ Reproduction is
authorised provided the source is
acknowledged
The contents of the interviews
and the articles are the sole
responsibility of the interviewees
and authors and do not
necessarily relect the opinion of
the European Court of Auditors
FOR MORE INFORMATION
AND PAPER COPIES :
European Court of Auditors
12, rue Alcide De Gasperi
1615 Luxembourg, LUXEMBOURG
[email protected]
eca.europa.eu
@EUAuditors
EUAuditorsECA
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Editorial
The ECA’s 40th anniversary: activities to commemorate and contribute further!
By Klaus-Heiner Lehne, ECA president
'Our staf are our main asset…'
By Eduardo Ruiz García, ECA Secretary-General
Professional work as leading thread
Interview with Ildiko Gall-Pelcz, ECA Member since 1 September 2017
Some topics to consider for the ECA to remain relevant in the future
By Ned Fennessy
ASPIRE to make a diference!
Interview with Maria Sundqvist
One happy ECA auditor
Interview with Jitka Benesova
Our ambition: making sure the ECA is an attractive workplace
By Jose Carrascosa, Directorate for Information, Workplace and Innovation
Working for the ECA entails a huge responsability
Interview with Rares Rusanescu
Looking at EU inancial lows with diferent hats
Interview with Andreja Rovan
Problem or opportunity: ECA’s ageing workforce
By Grainne Dempsey, ECA-COPEC vice-president
ECA needs more institutional visibility
Interview with Jan Inghelram
ECA looking beyond money
Interview with Kamila Lepkowska
For the interests of the staf: ECA Staf Committee chairs and their focal points
By Francois Picouleau, Chair of the ECA Staf Committee
ECA can add most value through in-depth analysis
Interview with Nicola Scafarto
ECA needs to work more with national parliaments
Interview with Karlijn van Bree
Reaching out : ECA delegation meets Council Presidency in Estonia
By Marc-Oliver Heidkamp, private oice of President Lehne
Reaching out: ECA contribution to Maltese NAO conference on accountability
By Annette Farrugia, Private Oice of Leo Brincat, ECA member
Audit is also making good use of common sense
Interview with Carmen Jimenez
Career mobility between EU institutions as a chance for learning
Interview with Christoph Nerlich
Young brains exploring opportunities in the EU public service
Interview with Victoria Gilson
FOCUS
Publications in the previous month
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40 years anniversary: it is all about people…!
4
The ECA will reach 40 years of existence this month. As institution you are the choices you
make. So an anniversary, be it as a person or an organisation, is a good moment to relect
on what you have done till now and to consider what you would like to do in the future.
Reaching forty years often means you have already made some of the fundamental
choices in life; while there are plenty of opportunities still ahead of you. For an institution
things might be slightly diferent. Compared with many Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs)
in the EU Member States, the ECA’s institutional life is still relatively short. But the way
it has matured has certainly not left it in infancy. The ECA has changed a lot since 1977
and so has the European Union. We have developed as European society has developed.
Often this was a deliberate choice trying to optimise our actions and our impact within
the mandate we have been given. The extensions of our mandate and, together with
an upgrade of our institutional status in 1992, are in itself already an appreciation of the
ECA’s work.
Making choices is one thing, implementing them is something else. In the September
edition of this Journal, the focus was on the strategic choices the ECA has made for the
upcoming years. This month the central theme is the people who make these choices
happen: the people in the ECA and particularly the ECA staf. After all, it is the staf who
make the chimney smoke! And they do it by auditing and producing reports which add
value in a rapidly changing Union. The value of ECA reports is also relected in the choices
our auditors make on the spot: the professional judgement they apply and how they
communicate their indings, conclusions and recommendations.
We can talk a lot about ECA staf but perhaps it is more interesting to let them speak
for themselves. That is why this anniversary edition is illed with many interviews I have
held with staf members, both long-standing, whether just recruited or already with
substantial audit experience, and former ECA employees, including some who still work
professionally in an EU environment. The thrust of these interviews you will ind in the
following pages. Despite the diversity in background, age and nationality, there are
two common characteristics:
knowledge and enthusiasm.
The views expressed in these
interviews are however clearly personal opinions.
In the years to come both Members and staf will have a key role to play in identifying
what works well in the EU and what does not. Their skills, knowledge, drive and integrity
will be essential for our institution to making the right choices.
Gaston Moonen
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The ECA’s 40th anniversary:
activities to commemorate
and contribute further!
By Klaus-Heiner Lehne, ECA president
5
2017 is a special year for the European Court of Auditors (ECA) since we celebrate our 40
th
anniversary.
This anniversary edition of our ECA Journal is about people. Our staf, both auditors
and those working in support services, is the backbone of our Institution. Without your
professionalism and enthusiasm our Institution would not be able to play its essential role in
improving EU inances and protecting the taxpayer’s money.
This anniversary is therefore an excellent moment to thank our staf on behalf of the College
for their valuable contribution to our work as the EU’s external auditor over the last 40 years.
The fact that we celebrate our 40th anniversary in October is no coincidence: in fact the ECA
was formally established on 18 October 1977. One week later the College of Members was
holding its irst session.
For this occasion a special publication 'European
Court of Auditors:
1977-2017 – 40 years of public auditing'
has been prepared by the former editor-in-chief of the
ECA Journal which looks back at the history of the ECA through various archive documents
and testimonies. Moreover, the Luxembourg Central Bank will issue a commemorative coin.
Finally, you will remember that the annual getting together of the ECA staf in early July was
dedicated to the 70’s.
Special publication :
'European
Court of Auditors 1977- 2017 40 years of public auditing'
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The ECA’s 40th anniversary: activities to commemorate
and contribute further!
continued
6
Last but not least, we mark this event by organising an oicial ceremony on 12 October
2017, in the presence of Their Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of
Luxembourg. The ceremony will be attended by authorities of the Luxembourg government,
representatives of EU institutions and the Member States’ permanent representations,
ambassadors, former Members, heads of supreme audit institutions (SAIs) of EU Member
States and Candidate Countries. Our former colleague Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Estonia –
the country holding the EU presidency, Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament,
and Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, have all accepted to speak
on this occasion. This is a testimony to the important role played by the ECA in our Union.
Many staf members have accepted the invitation to join this event and I am particularly
happy that we will be able to celebrate together this 40
th
anniversary of our Institution.
Many thanks also to all those who have contributed to this anniversary edition of our ECA
Journal and happy anniversary to all of us!
ECA College as of 7 september 2017
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'Our staf are our main asset…'
By Eduardo Ruiz García, ECA Secretary-General
This aricle will appear as contribuion of the ECA Secretary General to the book
‘European Court of Auditors 1977-2017 40 Years of Public Audiing’
which will be published in October 2017.
7
Asset :
'Advantage, aid, beneit, blessing, boon, help, resource, service…
valuables, wealth'.
Paperback Thesaurus. Collins, 1986).
'…knowledge, technique, know-how, skill… personnel.'
Roget’s Thesaurus of English words and phrases (ref 629).
Penguin Editions, 1987.
Eduardo Ruiz García
Our main asset
'Our staf are our main asset…' This is a very common thing for CEOs or high ranking managers to say,
but to what extent is this statement sincere and to what extent is it true that our staf are our most
valuable asset? I will try to reply to this question from the perspective of the 40th anniversary of the
European Court of Auditors (ECA).
On the 1st of January 1978 there were 47 people working at the ECA. This igure included Members,
the staf of their private oices, auditors, translators, administrative and clerical staf and drivers. At the
beginning of 2017, the ECA employed around 1000 people, including Members, oicials, contract staf,
seconded national experts and trainees. In this 40-year journey, more than 2700 people have worked
for the institution and have contributed towards achieving its mission and objectives.
Staf numbers have increased, but 'numbers' is not the only parameter for assessing the value of an
asset, and it is not even the most relevant.
Overall, our staf have become more diversiied. In 1978, there were nine nationalities; now there
are 28 EU nationalities, plus people coming from other countries like the former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia, Turkey and Serbia. Every day, in the corridors, we pass colleagues who are not only of
European origin, but who may also be of African, Asian, Caribbean and American backgrounds. In the
early years, most of our auditors were lawyers or accounting experts; now – although the bulk of them
still have legal and accounting backgrounds – many others have academic degrees in economics, or in
engineering, political science or business administration.
The age proile of the ECA’s staf shows that the institution is 'young'; at the end of 2016, over 50%
of staf members were aged 44 or less. 'Youth' has been a characteristic of our staf from the very
beginning; it is the result of both increasing in size and regular transfers to and from other institutions.
The ECA is a recognized 'auditor-nursery', feeding the needs of the European Commission, Parliament
and other institutions.
Gender balance is of utmost importance in ensuring that the organisation is able to face problems
from diferent perspectives; it allows a broader variety of management styles and helps us devise
alternative solutions. Gender balance has improved during these 40 years; especially in the last 10
years, more women have joined the ECA at higher levels of responsibility. In 2006, only 33% of women
were employed as administrators; in 2016 the igure was close to 42%. Nevertheless, further progress
is still needed at the level of audit managers, since the proportion of women is unsatisfactory.
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'Our staf are our main asset…'
continued
8
Diversity is built from diferent nationalities, backgrounds, ages and the gender balance. Diversity is
enriched by individual characters and qualities: creativity, rigour, prudence, curiosity, pragmatism,
courage, self-criticism, self-conidence, assertiveness and diplomacy… the ECA’s staf is blessed
with all these qualities. The result is a higher capacity to work together and to make it possible to
do things in many diferent ways, because there is very rarely only one single way of doing things.
Any organisation has an intangible value linked to its assets which are immaterial and non-physical,
like its buildings or equipment. The organisation’s intangible value would be equal to its total value
minus the value of its physical assets. It is very hard to calculate it and it is even harder for a public
sector institution. Often the intangible assets are not disclosed in the inancial statements and are
not measured. Nevertheless, there is a broad agreement among experts that intangible assets are
long term resources which include,
inter-alia,
reputation, brand recognition, knowledge and know-
how. Let us quickly explore some of these features.
Building the ECA as a
knowledge-organisation
Over the last 40 years, the ECA has gained a strong reputation and it is recognised by peers and
other institutions as an independent and professional audit body. There is not a single formula to
create reputation, it needs many diferent ingredients mixed in multiple complex doses. But there is
always one ingredient that is necessary in massive quantities: the reputation of each individual who
makes up the organisation. The ECA has set up a framework to facilitate the ethical and professional
behaviour of its staf, including awareness, training, advice and monitoring. But at the end of the
day, their behavior will depend on the values of the individuals concerned and the decisions that
they might take.
Today, we refer to the ECA as a 'knowledge-organisation'; in so doing, we are adhering to a new
management approach that considers
knowledge
as a driving factor for achieving strategic
objectives. Whatever knowledge-management policy we adopt, knowledge is always generated
and used
by human beings;
knowledge is captured, disseminated and shared
for human beings.
A 'knowledge-organisation' places STAFF at its core. STAFF is in capital letters because it includes
not only the skills and work capacity of employees, but also their individual knowledge and their
collective know-how. To be successful, an organisation must design its governance, structure,
policies, methodology and technology in relation to its STAFF.
40 years of developing intangible assets
Over four decades, the ECA has developed audit methodologies, translation and administrative
processes, a management culture, IT infrastructure and tools… These are also very valuable
intangible assets and all of them have been created by our STAFF. Behind any development there
are individual ideas, intelligence and efort; there is also a lot of working together, because team-
work and collegiality are among the main strengths of the organisation.
To sum up, the value of the ECA is mainly determined by its intangible assets: reputation, ethical
behavior, professionalism, knowledge, know-how, methodologies and management processes. The
value of these assets is highly dependent on the quality of its STAFF and on their capacity to work
together and generate relevant audit products.
In these 40 years, the Court has gained value by increasing the quality, size and diversity of its
STAFF. This greater value has been translated into concrete beneits for the European Union.
From Annual Report to multiple products
In 1978, the Court published its irst Annual Report and its irst Special Report (at that time known
as 'observations') on the functioning of the European Association for Cooperation (E.A.C.), a pioneer
body for managing external policy which disappeared years ago. For 20 years, the number of
products remained stable and the Court issued fewer than ten Special Reports per year. In 1998, its
production went up to 25 Special Reports. Since then the number of products has continued to
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'Our staf are our main asset…'
continued
9
grow, not only because of the number of Special Reports produced, but also because of the greater
number of Speciic Annual Reports related to the European Agencies and Bodies. In recent years,
the Court’s output has become more diversiied, and new types of product have emerged, like the
landscape reviews, the Annual Activity Report and ‘Audit in Brief’. In 2016, the Court produced 95
diferent products: two Annual Reports, 52 Speciic Annual Reports, 36 Special Reports and ive
opinions and others. The most recent Special Report published referred to an assessment of the
arrangements for the closure of the 2007-2013 cohesion and rural development programmes.
None of these products, not a single observation or recommendation, would have been possible
without the individual members of our staf. Everything is the result of cooperation among
auditors, translators, assistants, administrators, managers and staf in logistics, human resources,
inance, protocol, communication and security, as well as the Members and the staf in their Private
Oices.
Preserving and increasing value of STAFF
Yes, 'our STAFF are our main asset' (again in capital letters). Good and professional STAFF are our
most important asset; they are the
master ingredient
which contributes towards improving EU
inancial management, promoting accountability and transparency, and enabling the Court to act
as the independent guardian of the inancial interests of the citizens of the Union.
In order to continue being a relevant institution and add more value for EU citizens, the ECA
must preserve and increase the value of its STAFF. It must grow in diversity and gender balance;
it must further develop its current skills and recruit new ones; it needs to manage and enhance
its knowledge and open it up to the outside world. The ECA must preserve the professional and
ethical behaviour of its STAFF and secure a management culture and working environment
that facilitates working together and focusing on results. This is both a realistic and ambitious
programme for the next 40 years.
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Professional work as leading thread
10
Interview with
Ildikó Gáll-Pelcz,
ECA Member since
1 September 2017
Last month Ildikó Gáll-Pelcz succeeded
Szabolcs Fazakas as the new Hungarian ECA
Member. Time for an interview which turned
out to be a relaxed and enjoyable conversation
about what drives her in her work, her
ambitions for Europe, her irst experiences in
Luxembourg, a city totally new to her, and her
irst days at the ECA.
Very diverse working experience
The newly appointed Hungarian Member of the ECA, Ildikó Gáll-Pelcz, has an impressive and
diverse CV, with an educational background in mechanical engineering, economics, and also
audit, while having worked both in the private sector, in the academic world and in public
life. Since 2006 she has been a Member of Parliament, irst in Hungary, also as chair of the
parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control and as Deputy Speaker, and from 2010 onwards
as Member for the People’s Party Group in the European Parliament (EP), where she was Vice-
President from 2014 till recently. While doing all this she also obtained more than one PhD and
is a mother at the same time. When asked how she was able to combine all this she smiles and
explains: ‘It may look very diverse but I have a common route, a red thread in my career. In all my
functions I go back to a common basis, which is my professional work. My academic life gave me
a strong basis which I used also throughout my political life, both in Hungary and in the EP and
serves as the core point for my thoughts and actions.’
From EU’s political center to Luxembourg
Ms Gáll-Pelcz is clearly happy with her move to Luxembourg: ‘I was told that Luxembourg is
boring and why would I like to go to a country with weather similar to Brussels? The latter might
often be true, however with a three hour delay. But the irst is not: I really like that Luxembourg
is very green. I really like that from my apartment nearby the ECA I can walk directly into the
forest. And I like smaller cities, with their traditions and history and I feel it is the right decision
to have come here in a city with a very international atmosphere.’ When speaking about her new
working environment Ms Gáll-Pelcz is eager to share her positive irst impressions: ‘I had a warm
welcome by my colleagues in the College and ECA staf. It appears to me that the ECA has strict
rules and approaches but this its well for an audit institution.’ She is happy to be a member of
Chamber IV, the one she preferred in view of topics like competitiveness and growth. Exactly
the topics she has been working on in the past, both academically and while being a politician
and she looks forward working as Member Rapporteur on topics like Joint Undertakings and the
audit on the Single Resolution Mechanism.
In view of the interesting functions Ms Gáll-Pelcz has had, like most recently as EP Vice-President,
what is for her the main driver to come to the ECA? Her response comes quickly: ‘The issue of
audit is not new for me, on the contrary: I have both been trained and worked in the ield of
audit. As Member of the Hungarian National Assembly I was far away from the ECA as institution
but pursuing the same objectives, with similar approaches like in audit.' About her political
career she continues: As MEP I got to know the ECA through the interinstitutional mechanisms
and dialogues. When I was invited to apply for the vacant ECA Membership I did not have to
think long, the more since the ECA work stands so close to my professional basis. Having been
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Interview with Ildikó Gáll-Pelcz
continued
11
appointed to the ECA, I am keen to apply audit approaches once again as an auditor. 20
years ago I was director of the Business Management Institute at the University of Miskolc
founding a new faculty. I was really far from the ECA but also far from my political life as
well. However, there is a saying in Hungary: we cross the bridge when we get to it. I have
taken the bridges that I needed to take, not knowing that one day I would take the bridge
leading me to the ECA.’
An ECA ofering frontline solutions
When discussing some of the issues Ms Gáll-Pelcz has worked on in the EP she highlights:
‘We are living in a fast changing world, which changes much faster than 40 years ago.
Back then the ECA could audit the EU budget from a rather static position. Today this is
not enough. The ECA approaches should be frontline in order to give pertinent answers to
pressing issues. A very good basis to do so is the ECA’s diversity, with diferent nationalities
and backgrounds. This will enable us to come up with thorough analysis based on a
common audit approach to add value in inding solutions for society’s challenges and
concerns. The ECA does not need further changes in its mandate but needs to be inventive
and adaptive, with frontline solutions to be relevant for policy decision-making. In doing
so we should try to serve as a benchmark for others, including national audit authorities.’
Ms Gáll-Pelcz underlines that communicating clear messages to others will be essential
and welcomes the ongoing evolution of the audit approach for the ECA’s Statement of
Assurance and will follow the discussions intensively. She also underlines that the ECA has
to make optimal use of research already available before starting an audit in order to make
maximum use of the limited resources the ECA has. She shares her own experiences here:
‘The EP Research Service can be an important source of research done and I used their
work a lot as MEP, but also for my own research for my recent Doctor degree when writing
about the potential of the single market.’
Ms Gáll-Pelcz mentions iscal issues as one of the topics she dealt with in the EP and she
believes that there is a role to play for the ECA since there is an important role to play for
the EU. The topic is huge and potential damages, both inancially but also reputation-
wise, can be big. She thinks such damages can be decreased through more regulation,
in combination with more transparency. As to the ECA role in this ield she says: ‘When
looking into this the ECA as auditor will have to study many dimensions of the area
because it is very complex. For example, in e-commerce, a solid approach on iscal issues
is essential. Looking at iscal dimensions is probably useful for many audit topics, simply
because taxation often is an important component in the area of competiveness. If tax
collection is not properly done in a Member State it can also pose a barrier to the internal
market. And the internal market is the main possibility to realise the EU’s economic
potential for its citizens.’
Regaining citizen’s trust in the EU, outmost important
Ms Gáll-Pelcz welcomes the ECA landscape reviews, and certainly the one recently
published on Climate Change. When asked about her opinion about another landscape
review which is in the pipeline called ‘Putting EU law into ‘practice, covering the
Commission’s oversight of the application of EU law by Member States,’ she reacts very
spontaneously: ‘This is very important, if not the most important. EU law is ixed and
Member States have to follow this. For example, what are the underlying reasons for tax
fraud and tax evasion to happen, despite the rules in this area. It will be very good to
ind out and analyse this. Important will be the quality and usefulness of the rules and
regulations established, and at which level.’ When asked whether she inds this perhaps
a political topic she continues: ‘The ECA will need to ind the right way to ensure a
professional approach. As such the topic is not political when focusing on the basis of our
work: the rule and how it is applied‘.
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Interview with Ildikó Gáll-Pelcz
continued
12
When thinking about topics the ECA might touch upon in the future Ms Gáll-Pelcz is clear:
‘Barriers for the internal market and consumer protection issues will be important topics
for citizens. Improvements there will bring the EU closer to its citizens. Most of them think
that EU institutions are too expensive and citizens do not see how EU institutions can
be useful for them.' She underlines that 'the basis for regaining citizens’ trust in the EU
ofering valuable solutions lies also in what we chose to audit and the quality of our work.
With audit coverage of topics close to the heart of the EU citizen, changes in these areas
can directly be felt by citizens, be it inancially, getting a job or easier access to facilities.
Then citizens’ trust will return, step by step.’
Eager to meet the ECA family
With almost a 1000 staf members the ECA is a lot smaller than the EP. It will nevertheless
be a challenge to meet most of them. Ms Gáll-Pelcz is optimistic about this: ‘There are
many ways to meet each other, ranging from meetings in the hallways, during oicial
meetings, but also during a cofee or a lunch. We are all in the same boat and my door
was open in the European Parliament and also here in the ECA. I am eager to meet people
and discuss many diferent topics. To me it appears that the ECA is a family, at least an
organisation where people like to be familiar with each other. I intend to use the many
occasions there will be to meet and discuss.’
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Some topics to consider for the ECA to remain
relevant in the future
By Ned Fennessy
13
Joining the ECA in 1980 and retiring as director in
2016 Ned Fennessy has experienced most of the
forty years of ECA activities and developments. In
this article he probes into issues related to audit
topic selection, the balance between the diferent
types of audit and recruiting and retaining qualiied
staf. Topics he thinks will be important for the
ECA to address if it wants to continue remaining
relevant in the years to come.
Ned Fennessy
Taking stock
The fortieth anniversary of the establishment of the ECA is an appropriate moment to take stock
of what has been achieved relative to the aspirations of the founding fathers. In that regard, it is
worth noting that the European Court of Auditors was set up to conduct an efective scrutiny of
the operations of the European institutions, something that its Audit Board predecessor failed to
achieve.
More speciically the Treaty creating the ECA and the consequent provisions of the inancial
regulation set out its role as follows:
•
The ECA examines the accounts of all revenue and expenditure of the Union and also
examines the accounts of all revenue and expenditure of all bodies, oices or agencies
set up by the Union, in so far as the relevant constituent instrument does not preclude
such examination.
The ECA provides the European Parliament and the Council with a statement of
assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the
underlying transactions which is published in the Oicial Journal of the European Union.
This statement may be supplemented by speciic assessments for each major area of
Union activity.
The ECA examines whether all revenue has been received and all expenditure incurred in
a lawful and regular manner and whether the inancial management has been sound. In
doing so, the Court has to report in particular on any cases of irregularity.
After the close of each inancial year the ECA draws up an annual report that is forwarded
to the other institutions of the Union and published, together with the replies of these
institutions to the observations of the Court, in the Oicial Journal of the European
Union.
The ECA may also, at any time, submit observations, particularly in the form of special
reports, on speciic questions and deliver opinions at the request of one of the other
institutions of the Union.
The ECA also assists the European Parliament and the Council in exercising their powers
of control over the implementation of the budget.
In respect of the European Central Bank, the ECA´s audit powers are limited to the
examination of the operational eiciency of the management of the ECB.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Of course, we should not lose sight of the fact that the unique circumstances governing the
creation of the ECA posed speciic challenges insofar as the role assigned to it as a transnational
body were novel. Nor should we forget that even in its fortieth year, the institution is still a mere
infant relative to the long-established national audit bodies.
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Some topics to consider for the ECA to remain relevant in the future
continued
14
I believe that it is fair to say that, after a somewhat hesitant start, the ECA has found its
feet and for the most part, has reached a cruising speed allowing it to achieve its mission
of contributing to public scrutiny and accountability insofar as the uses made of the EU
budgetary resources are concerned. In efect, the annual and special reports of the ECA play
a central role in the process of granting discharge to the Commission for its execution of the
EU budget.
Challenges facing the ECA going forward
However, this article focusses not on the past but on the challenges facing the ECA going
forward. It is fair to say that the pace of change is now signiicantly faster than at any time
during the last forty years. This is likely to accelerate and, if the ECA is to remain relevant, it
will have to adapt its modus operandi to keep abreast of those changes.
Among the most important challenges I see facing the ECA in this respect are the following:
•
preserving the independence of the ECA;
•
getting the balance right between legality and regularity audits and value for money
audits:
•
the challenges of recruiting, training and retaining highly qualiied staf;
I shall address each of these issues in turn.
Preserving the independence of the ECA
To be efective, the ECA has to be independent and be seen to be so. This can best be
achieved by issuing balanced and authoritative reports on subjects of it’s own choosing.
Where criticism is warranted, it should be constructive and fair but avoid sensationalism. It is
fair to say that the ECA has always strongly defended its independence. However, interested
external parties have, on occasion, attempted to unduly inluence the ECA's message. Such
pressures may well increase in future with political pressure being applied to soften its
message. This must be strenuously avoided and where it occurs, robustly resisted.
Legality versus value for money audits
The ECA's principal output regarding legality and regularity audits is its annual Statement
of Assurance (SoA) whereby, for each principal policy area and for the budget as a whole,
it concludes on the legality and regularity of expenditure based on an examination of a
randomly drawn representative sample of transactions. Going forward, the statement of
assurance as required by the treaties should remain the principal element of the ECA's
assessment of compliance aspects.
While I am aware that there are ongoing internal discussions as to how the SoA
methodology might be changed, I would suggest that in recent years it has been excessively
based on an unduly rigid arithmetic formula. Greater use should be made of the auditors'
overriding mantra, namely 'professional judgement'. In my view this could be achieved by
extending the evaluation of the administrative and control systems. I recognise that this
approach has been evolving in recent years and I would suggest that this development be
continued.
As regards the ECA's examination of sound inancial management or 'value for money'
issues, it is important that it protects its independence by choosing topics autonomously.
An area where the ECA could usefully extend its activities is in policy areas where budgetary
expenditure is low but which have a considerable inluence, for example, competition policy.
It should be recognised that new or enhanced skillsets may be required of auditors to tackle
such complex areas, although the ECA could draw on external experts to complement its
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Some topics to consider for the ECA to remain relevant in the future
continued
15
internal competencies. To date the ECA has concentrated its value for money audits to high spend
policy areas such as agriculture, regional development, environment etc. While it is important
not to neglect these areas some such areas risk being over audited to the detriment of far more
inluential low spend areas
Finally, in this regard, the Court has in recent years set ambitious targets for the timeframe of
special reports to be published annually. While both of these targets are laudable, they should
not be allowed to impinge negatively on the quality of such reports.
The challenges of recruiting, training and retaining highly qualiied staf
The quality of the ECA's output is critically dependent on the quality and motivation of its staf.
To date, the ECA has been successful in being able to attract qualiied staf but the situation
is changing. Firstly, the number of applicants from many of the original Member States is in
constant decline, indicating that career prospects ofered by the ECA are not suiciently attractive
for potential candidates or that the recruitment methods used are no longer appropriate.
Secondly, staf often tend to stay at the ECA throughout their careers which may indicate a
lack of career mobility for staf and, for the organisation, a lack of exposure to new ideas from
outside. Thirdly, while the ECA invests heavily in in-house training programmes, as of now there
is no possibility to acquire a universally recognised professional qualiication at the ECA, thereby
possibly restricting outward career mobility for staf.
All of these issues matter greatly in an ever changing world. Even in the relatively sheltered
universe of the public service it is questionable if the 'job for life' concept will survive for ever.
Already in many public administrations time limits are imposed on middle/senior manager
positions in order, among other things, to stimulate new ideas and thinking. Before such a
development could occur on a wider scale, however, it would be essential to open up alternative
opportunities for those wishing to depart by providing the chance to join other EU or national
institutions or through exchange programmes with organisations in public and private
enterprises. I acknowledge that the ECA has already taken some measures in this direction but
more extensive programmes may be necessary. Ofering staf the possibility to acquire universally
recognised professional qualiications in selected ields would further enhance staf mobility and
renewal.
It is also very likely that new skillsets will be required of ECA staf in the future. This could
come about because of fundamental change in EU budgetary expenditure insofar as greater
emphasis may be placed on supporting intangible elements, such as research & development
and training programmes. The impact of these measures is diicult to measure using traditional
methodologies. Likewise, the ECA will need to have greater recourse to new data mining tools
such as those used extensively by today's most successful technology companies. This will also
require extensive training of staf.
All of the foregoing indicates that the recruitment process through general open competitions
may no longer be optimal. A more efective solution in some circumstances could be to target
certain skill sets required for speciic functions. Likewise, consideration should be given to
recruiting staf at diferent hierarchical levels, where appropriate, rather than predominantly at
the entry level as at present.
Concluding remarks
The foregoing observations by no means present neither an exhaustive list nor analysis of the
challenges facing the ECA. No doubt new and hitherto unforeseen challenges will arise over
future years. The ECA's ability to remain relevant into the future will largely depend on whether it
can successfully meet such challenges. Roll on the next forty years!
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ASPIRE to make a diference!
16
Interview with
Maria Sundqvist
Maria Sundqvist is one of the two ASPIRE
colleagues I interviewed. Being new to the ECA
she is not new to Luxembourg and choosing
the ECA clearly is a considerate choice for a
diferent career, for learning, through ASPIRE
and from many colleagues, and to make a
contribution for the public good.
Drive for the public sector
Maria started her work at the ECA on 1 April 2017 and started working in Chamber IV, doing
compliance audits on research and internal policies projects. Before that she was the inance and
budget oicer for seven years at the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the EU, after having
passed a competition. In the Translation Centre she dealt with budget preparation and monitoring
and inancial veriication. Before that Maria worked in Sweden in three government agencies, also
in inance and budget matters, as last one with the Swedish Public Employment Agency, one of
the largest agencies in Sweden with around 11.000 people employed. She studied business and
economics in Stockholm.
Being in Luxembourg, with her family, she wanted to stay in Luxembourg and in her view, for a
inance person, the ECA is THE place to be. For Maria there is a big diference in her new job: ‘Instead
of working in support services, as for my earlier employers, I now work in ‘production’, doing the core
business of the ECA.’ For Maria audit means also a change in outlook of her work: ‘One of the goals in
my life is was to make a change, having an impact. She elaborates further: ‘I see how the EU money
is used and if I detect weaknesses I can actually improve the use of it, which is quite fundamental for
me. I always wanted to work abroad, preferably with the EU, the UN or the Swedish Foreign Ministry. I
tasted this working as an intern for the Swedish mission to the UN in New York and I always kept this
desire.’
Maria inds Luxembourg very much to her liking, although she misses Sweden now and then,
particularly the water and the snow. However, she feels well integrated in her neighborhood, which
has a very international character and likes cycling to work.
ASPIRE for integration and skills enhancement
Maria’s experience so far about working at the ECA concurs with the positive stories she heard
beforehand: ‘I believe the three year ASPIRE programme helps me to do so, not only through training
but also through my placement in diferent chambers and with diferent audit responsibilities. First
by doing compliance audit work in Chamber IV for 18 months, then moving to another audit area for
18 months, learning more about performance audit.’ With her inancial knowledge Maria is keen to
ind out more about that aspect.
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Interview with Maria Sundqvist
continued
17
The ASPIRE programme for auditors has been designed to enable recruitment at the ECA, welcome
newcomers appropriately, and allow them to acquire both compliance and inancial audit and performance
audit experiences in their irst three years at the Court. The ASPIRE programme is set up for the integration of
auditors. The selected candidates are assigned to a directorate for 18 months, including an intensive training
programme, and subsequently move to another directorate for another 18 months. Aim is to provide to new
recruits a more eicient way to develop job-speciic knowledge and skills, and gain insight into the whole
organisation. The programme is ofered in a block, to minimize disruption. The programme also encourages
frequent exchanges and networking for the participants. Participants are also encouraged to get postgraduate
training and/or obtain an audit certiication.
Maria says: ‘We started with in total 5 people: 2 transfers, me being one of them, one new comer and two who
had worked at the Commission in various positions there. The proiles are quite diferent and I believe this
was certainly taken into account when deciding where to place the people for their irst 18 months period.’
From October onwards both the irst and the second ASPIRE groups will receive several training courses
together. ‘Till now it looks like a good mix between working and learning.’ Maria further adds that all ASPIRE
colleagues have mentors and they transfer a lot of knowledge on the ECA and audit processes, providing an
individual approach.
Maria feels that there is a nice relationship between the irst ASPIRE participants: ‘The reception we received
from the HR staf was very pleasant and welcome. As ASPIRE group we try to have lunch together at least
once a week, which is a very good way to share experiences and get to know people in diferent chambers.
So despite having had only a few training days together the network aspect has worked well.’ Maria is
looking forward to the upcoming courses on audit methodology, Financial Regulation and the EU budget,
audit approach, the audit management systems, etc., presenting in her view a good coverage between
technical and non-technical aspect. She is very positive about all the training possibilities ofered at the ECA:
‘Exposure to knowledge is only a doorstep away, with courses ofered but also several seminars, practice
sharing sessions, etc. And people are encouraged to attend these activities and learn new things!’ As example
Maria gives a seminar on spending one euro out of ive from the EU budget on climate change. She also
coordinates with her mentor to ind a good balance in what to attend and what not.
What I like about the ECA?
Besides the possibility to make a diference for society Maria highlights another aspect when confronted
with this question: 'In the Translation Centre I was the only inance oicer. Being an auditor at the ECA I have
hundreds of colleagues with whom I can discuss audit issues, which can be very enriching professionally
speaking.’ About her timing of applying for the ECA she adds: ‘I considered applying earlier for the ECA but
decided not in view of the travelling I would do as auditor. However, with my children being slightly older
now, I can balance the travelling for work better with my family life.'
Maria feels that the external component of the ECA work gives the auditors also a higher external proile and
a corporate identity: ‘Many people know about the ECA and what external auditors do. ECA products get a lot
of media coverage and I believe overall the ECA has a good identity, with which I gladly want to be ailiated
with,’ she concludes with a smile.
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One happy ECA auditor
18
Speaking with Jitka Benesova, participant in the
ECA’s irst ASPIRE programme, it is clear how
happy she is with her decision to join the ECA:
the colleagues, the audit topics she is working
on, her working environment and Luxembourg
itself. It all fall into place for Jitka.
Interview with
Jitka Benesova
A considerate choice to change to audit
Originating from the Czech Republic, Jitka worked in the European Commission in Brussels
before coming to the ECA. In Brussels, she worked as an investigator in the ield of security
responsible for administrative investigations of various incidents that happened in the
Commission, ranging from small thefts to leaks of information. For her it was quite a big
step to come to the ECA, changing both the ield of work and also the city. But according to
Jitka: ‘In both aspects, a change for the better. Luxembourg is a beautiful historical city and
I personally feel a lot better here than in Brussels. It is green and clean, very well organised,
and everything works properly. And people also seem to be more relaxed, less hectic than
in Brussels. Really love at the irst sight!’ A key decision for her was to change work ields,
away from the security ield to auditing. As Jitka puts it: ‘I was sure that I wanted an analytical
job and I had also a strong preference to work in an EU institution, perhaps a naïve children’
dream but still.’ In view of her background in both social sciences and economics, auditing
profession seemed to make sense. Jitka: ‘To make a long story short, the audit competition
came at the right moment and I was pleasantly surprised that I passed the numerous
selection phases, including the last interview at the ECA.’
The choice for audit was certainly a considerate one for Jitka: ‘What I particularly like about
the work in the ECA is the variability of work. We look into a wide range of policy ields or
topics and each audit that we do is more or less unique. In my previous job I was more a
service provider at an operational level, solving instantaneous problems, whereas here we
often have the opportunity to look really into depth of one single issue.’ Jitka is in Chamber
V, working on the Landscape Review on the Commission’s oversight of the application
of EU Law by Member States, exploring issues such as the transposition of directives,
infringements of EU law or Commission’s activities to promote the compliance of Member
States with the EU law. Jitka further speciies: ‘In this task we look at how the Commission
fulils its role as the 'watchdog' of EU law and I am very happy to contribute to it as the
task is rather unusual both in its form and substance. I came when the Task plan was being
inalized, so it was relatively convenient to quickly catch up with the rest of the team.’ Jitka
is now also getting involved in another audit task in Chamber V, which is the inancial and
compliance audit of revenue of the EU budget. She smiles: 'I get the diversity I was hoping
for.’
ASPIRE to learn and integrate
Diversity is also what she likes in the ECA ASPIRE programme for newcomers: ‘The
programme was a positive point while coming to the ECA, giving a newcomer in audit
the opportunity to learn about diferent aspects of audit in diferent policy areas. I also
see ASPIRE as an important integration programme since it stimulates you to meet many
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Interview with Jitka Benesova
continued
19
colleagues and to experience work in various teams in a relatively short time. Each auditor
has diferent experiences and approaches and I am really grateful to have the opportunity
to proit from that. My experience till now is that colleagues are extremely helpful and
open to answer questions and to share their experience, which I would sincerely like
to thank them for.’ She adds: ‘I can see from my experience that we can fully rely on the
support of our colleagues and our direct management, which makes the beginning in a
new job much easier.’
Jitka believes that the current training set-up of the ASPIRE programme covers a wide
enough variety: ‘The general part contains issues like the EU budget and inancial
regulations or public ethics. The speciic audit part goes into issues like the ECA’s audit
approach, audit communication, speciic audit IT systems, report writing, etc. And we are
free to take other training ofered by the ECA or other institutions based on our future
specialisation.’ Jitka has one element that makes her feel slightly uncomfortable: ‘ ASPIRE
candidates are allowed to migrate between Chambers means that the time and eforts
invested in me may not come to the beneit of my current Chamber in the future when
I move further after 18 months. This makes me feel quite guilty, since for Chamber V it
would have been perhaps more eicient if I stayed, saving the time to teach another
ASPIRE candidate what I have just learned.’
Attention point for the next 40 years?
As to the ECA’s 40 year anniversary Jitka noticed that some activities have been organised
to look back and forward: ‘I noticed the references to the anniversary at the summer party,
there will be the ceremony in mid-October, and I myself ordered the commemorative
coin issued for 40 years ECA.’ Speaking about whether she thinks that there is a corporate
identity within the ECA Jitka is clear: ‘I believe there is a shared feeling that we are all in
the same boat. Perhaps also because of its smaller size the ECA sometimes has to ight for
its rightful place among other institutions which I believe helps us in a way to stick better
together. It also seems to me that people here want to make a diference, want to have
a meaningful impact on EU afairs. Size also enables us to know each other better. For
example in the Commission there is a huge distance between Commissioners and staf
while in the ECA the normal employee does get to see and speak to ECA Members pretty
often when cooperating in the execution of a task. For me this gives the impression that
the Members are closer and one feels less detached from the top management layer.’
As a newcomer Jitka is willing to share some irst impressions on where the ECA can
further excel. She believes that the ECA produces very good reports but they are not
always that visible for the ECA stakeholders and interested EU citizens. As an example
Jitka refers to universities that can make good use of the ECA reports. She adds: ‘I have
the impression that the ECA products are still used only by a rather limited number of
potential addressees. It is a pity and it might be a potential point for our future action. But
I am well aware that it is not always easy.’ Another issue for her is the level of simpliication
of reports: Readability of reports is essential but to be attractive for academia or other
stakeholders, ECA reports still need to have enough details and be speciic enough. The
challenge obviously is to ind the right balance.’
Happiness in small things
Jitka is clearly grateful to have become an ECA oicial and is very positive about the
working conditions at the ECA ‘I have the impression that the ECA as an employer
actually cares about the well-being of staf.’ In this respect she thinks about lexitime,
facilities in the buildings like the gym, the canteen, a nice Court yard or a number of
training or knowledge sharing events. This makes a big change for Jitka, because, as she
puts it: ‘These small things make a diference in the happiness of the staf. I feel that the
institution actually cares about that.’
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Our ambition: making sure the ECA is an
attractive workplace
By Jose Carrascosa, Directorate for Information, Workplace and Innovation
20
For most part of its 40 years of activities the ECA was located in diferent premises in Luxembourg,
enhancing the aspect of ‘travelling auditors.’ For about ive years now all ECA staf have a common
home base in three buildings in the Kirchberg area, next and connected to each other. Jose Carrascosa
updates us on the buildings details and how he and his team members try to make the ECA an
enjoyable workplace.
From left to right:
K2, K3, K1 ECA buildings
Enabling a happy experience
Our workplace is fundamental for making our daily life a happy experience at the ECA. At the
Directorate for Information, Workplace and Innovation we work hard to make that happen.
The three words of our name resume our priorities: go digital, provide a pleasant working
space and propose new solutions and experiences.
At this 'village' of around one thousand people that the ECA is, there is a diversity of spaces
that facilitate our life. We have excellent spaces for collaborative work, like multiple team
zones and meeting rooms or videoconference facilities. We do even have an innovation
room at K3+2, recently refurbished, and when the weather is ine we can go outside to the
K40 ’gloriette’. We count with excellent facilities for keeping us healthy like the itness room,
the gym or the Makarena outdoor court for playing football or volleyball. Our cafeterias
and our canteen and restauration services are much appreciated; we can all notice how the
canteen gets packed at lunchtime with many colleagues from other institutions! Many other
services and facilities are available in our campus like the medical service, the travel agency,
the dry cleaning counter, the room for parents taking care of children, etc.
How all this is managed?
Compared to other EU Institutions, the ECA has a rather small internal team devoted to
buildings. Facilities management is in fact a highly outsourced task at the ECA. External
companies, managed by our internal technical and administrative staf, help us in operating
our electrical installation, the heating and ventilation of our buildings, the daily and weekly
cleaning, the operation of our lifts or the maintenance of our gardens. They regularly refresh
the painting of our walls, they segregate and dispose our waste (with your help!), they take
care of the correct functioning and cleanliness of our toilets, they handle our insurance
policies and they provide us with many security systems like the network of ire detectors,
the sprinklers in the parkings, the widely available ire extinguishers, etc.
The involvement of diferent teams of our organisation is fundamental for operating the
ECA facilities in a smooth way. Our work has its foundations in the excellent work of our
procurement and inance teams. In the same way, there are several teams operating many of
these infrastructures. The catering team is in charge of the restoration service that uses our
kitchens to prepare and serve our meals, our colleagues in the logistics team take care that
we all have our oice ready when we arrive at the Court and when oice moves are needed
and the security team does its best for our safety and our security.
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Our ambition: making sure the ECA is an attractive workplace
continued
21
ECA underworld
Modern oice buildings have many hidden places that host technical installations that are
not visible to the public but are essential for the correct functioning and comfort of their
occupants. This is the case for the Court too: in the three buildings of our campus we ind
top-level kitchens, many technical facilities for heating and ventilation in the basements and
on our rooftops, electricity transformers and electrogen groups and an amazing delivery and
waste management area in K3. In fact our buildings are like a small factory.
You will notice that in your loor there are 'mysterious' doors leading to IT and electricity
technical rooms or to the small rooms used by cleaning personnel. Coming from the IT
world, I would like to underline the impact of IT installations like the extensive WIFI network
or the videoconference rooms. These facilitaties help us to collaborate better and be more
eicient. And this is the visible part, the non visible side are the Datacenters, the IT network
that runs along the electricty network that power all our oices and building facilities. For
staf interested a guided-tour through our facilities could be amazing!
Improving the service
We try to do our best, but … bulbs, stores or electricity can fail. Comfort might not always be
perfect either, sometimes it feels too cold, sometimes too hot or too noisy, or our workspace is
not as clean as we would like it to be or we requested furniture but we do not know when it will
be delivered. In our directorate we are committed to improving our services and to do so we
are currently working on setting up a catalogue of services common to facilities management,
logistics and HR. The idea is in fact to follow the same scheme of the IT service desk and enlarge
that to an ECA Service Desk , a ’one stop shop’ for all areas that work under the same principles
of dealing with requests and ixing incidents.
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Our ambition: making sure the ECA is an attractive workplace
continued
22
Life at the ECA is quiet but not that much! The number of events on our weekly agenda is amazing:
a conference, a high-level visit or reception. We do not have (yet!) an event management team
but we do have a virtual one. By magic, diferent services work together in order to cope with the
increasing number of events that take place at ECA.
The future
The intensiication in the terrorist threats in Europe in the last years has led the EU Institutions to
reinforce their physical security. The works currently going on involve the construction of a fence
around K1, an external accreditation center and a security dispatching in the K1 ground loor.
After the ’mise en conformité’, i.e. the upgrades in order to adhere to more recent Luxembourgish
legislation on buildings performed in K1 in 2008, it is now the turn of renewing the technical
installations of the K2 building. The works are accompanied by a study on the modernisation
of its working spaces. But no, it is not about open plan oices…! We are currently working
with professional oice designers that are meeting staf from diferent occupations (auditors,
translators, HR, IT…) in order to design eicient and comfortable working spaces that are
appropriate for each type of activity. We are hopeful about the outcome!
Finally, it is our concern to provide a sound long term solution for the future of our oldest building,
the K1. Plans are very preliminary and diferent possibilities are being explored: demolition and
rebuilding, refurbishment…. Indeed there is no easy solution in terms of costs and disturbance for
staf during the duration of the works. We will keep the ECA staf posted about this major project!
The ECA buildings – some facts
The ECA presently owns three buildings – K1, K2 and K3 - and rents surfaces for its IT
disaster recovery centre and for three oices in Brussels and one oice in Strasbourg.
K1 was modernised in 2008 to bring it into conformity with national health, safety and
environmental requirements. Wherever possible, the technical installations K1 were
upgraded in order to align them with those in K2 and K3. As a result, the three buildings,
to the maximum degree possible, operate as a single, integrated technical entity.
K3 has been designed to facilitate the work of the ECA auditors. As well as providing
individual oices, zones are available for small teams to work together. The building
includes the specialised training centre that the ECA needs to attain high professional
standards. Whilst remaining modest in outlook, the building provides an inviting and
technically appropriate working environment. Design features have also been adapted so
that it has received the BREEAM - ’very good’ environmental certiication
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BREEAM). Protection of the environment is a top priority for
the Court and as result the Court obtained the ISO14001 and the EMAS certiications at
the beginning of 2017.
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Working for the ECA entails a huge
responsability
23
Interview with
Rares Rusanescu
Being the coordinator for the compliance audit
team in cohesion Rares Rusanescu is a busy
man. But this did not afect his relaxed mood
or attention for the ‘higher’ goals the ECA is
working for.
From private to public auditing
Rares started working for the ECA in 2010. Before that he worked for KPMG in Luxembourg and prior
to that for PwC in Romania. Rares laughs: ‘Till now I have spent my entire professional life in audit,
mainly checking what others have been doing!’ His educational background did not immediately
point into that direction: 'I have a university degree in economics with a specialisation in marketing.
But I never worked in it.’ When inishing his studies audit seemed like a good place to start and PwC
was recruiting and providing training in audit. Rares is also a fellow of the Association of Chartered
and Certiied Accountants (ACCA).
Initially Rares had not considered working in the public sector. But he explains: ‘After over 7 years of
auditing in the private sector I needed a change. And since Romania had become a member and jobs
became available at the ECA it was a natural step to try to work for the ECA, the more since I was in
Luxembourg already. The main reason for making a change was to change the substance of my work.
What also motivated me was the perspective to inluence the functioning of EU institutions.'
Similarities with the private audit sector… until a certain level
Rares observes that the ECA is very much organised as a private sector irm: ‘In the private sector you
have partners, here you have Members. In the private sector you normally do not work for a long
period in the same audit team, here it is the same, at least for compliance audit. Of course there are
diferences: in the private sector the focus on the inancial statements while in the ECA the focus
is very much on legality and regularity issues. We go out to the inal beneiciary, although physical
inspections can also occur in the private audit world.’ Speaking about the work Rares is clear: ‘An
important diference is where professional judgement comes into play. ‘In the compliance work of the
ECA there is a legal basis and you have to take into account the judgements of the CJEU. But often
there are grey areas in the regulation, with certain aspects not well deined. Particularly there you
need to apply professional judgement.'
Increasing complexities for the guardian of EU inances
What Rares really appreciates is the ECA role as guardian of EU inances. ‘I believe the ECA has a very
important role. The ECA is an important factor in the balance of the system. We have to provide a
realistic and critical view, even in tough times. This is not something you would easily ind in the
private sector. A private sector auditor has to abide by professional standards but they still have a
business to run. There is potentially a conlict of interest: a very important client will easier get an
attentive ear than a small one. The ECA does not have such sales targets.' Rares goes even further: ‘As
external auditor the ECA has an even more important duty than private sector auditors have. One
element is the sheer size of the EU, another one is because of its work, looking at compliance and at
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Interview with Rares Rusanescu
continued
24
performance.’ Rares underlines that the private sector can certainly look into such issues
but believes there is another big diference: ‘If there is a problem with private money
the impact will be on the company owners. But if there is an overall problem with EU
funds as a whole the impact will be diferent, in most cases born by the taxpayer, and
repercussions can be rather signiicant. In the public sector the accountability factor is far
more important!’
Looking back at forty years of ECA, Rares thinks the ECA has come a long way since its
original coniguration: ‘The ECA is now signiicantly diferent, having followed also the
general development of the EU. With a larger budget and many complexities the role
of the ECA has only become more important.’ There is one element which Rares inds
amazing: ‘The complexity of the instruments used to achieve some of EU objective has
reached a level which I would never have considered possible for the public sector.’ Rares
gives the example of inancial instruments: ‘Sometimes they are more complex than what
I saw in the private sector. Of course we get used to auditing these innovative instruments
but they demand a diferent type of audit, also a diferent set of skills, sometimes also
relying on experts in certain areas. I do believe that our audit work now is more diicult
than in the beginning.’
Having brought up the issue about skills Rares gives an example of a soft skill he picked
up in the ECA: ‘I certainly improved my negotiation skills, which you need for example in
an adversarial procedure. Such a procedure teaches you how to get your view across the
other side, sometimes by presenting it in a diferent way, or learning how the other side
thinks.’ Now Rares also realises he signiicantly understated the importance of political
decisions when working in the private sector: ‘Working in an environment like the ECA
you see how important politics can be. I imagine that for the EP or Council it becomes
increasingly more diicult to decide to allocate even more money to a scheme the ECA
has assessed not to perform well.'
Planning tool to better implement audit
When speaking about how the ECA can further excel Rares does not have to think long:
‘I would love that the ECA would have a very transparent audit planning tool, which
would make it visible, on a weekly basis, for each auditor what he or she is working on.’
To Rares this is not a theoretical concept because he had it already for several years while
working in the private sector. He continues: ‘It would address the working balances and
would avoid overload of some colleagues. And it would better allow managers to prevent
conlicts in planning. It should be available to all auditors, the more since it only deals with
work, so no personal data issues are involved. I think it would be very useful in the ECA.’
What motivates Rares a lot when working for the ECA is the overview he gets on the
implementation of a very important budget area like the cohesion policy: ‘It concerns
a large envelop of funds and you can get a good overview of how the funded projects
come to the beneit of EU citizens.’ Rares has worked in Cohesion since he joined the ECA
and as coordinator for the Statement of Assurance he is getting a good overview of the
area. He thinks there are not many places, in either the private or public sector, where one
can do the work as done in the ECA at the highest professional level. And with such a clear
identity: ‘We are really seen as the inancial watchdog, the one body that is looked upon
to assess funds are spent in line with rules. I believe my colleagues and I particularly feel
this identity when visiting Member States and you feel almost your personal responsibility
to ensure the quality of spending out of the EU budget. With the ECA having such
importance for EU inancial management our work entails a huge responsibility.’
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Looking at EU inancial lows with
diferent hats
25
Interview with
Andreja Rovan
Andreja Rovan has been working for the
Slovenian Representation to the EU in Brussels
since January 2017, representing her country in
the Council Budget Committee. From 2011 till
2016 she worked as the attaché in the private
oice of the former Slovenian ECA Member
Milan Martin Cvikl.
Getting to work for the ECA
Before coming to the ECA Andreja was heading the unit for cooperation with EU budget
at the Slovenian Ministry of Finance. She focused on the Slovenian contribution to the EU
budget - the own resources area - and drafted the answers to the Commission’s questions
related to the ECA observations within the context of the ECA annual report work. Andreja
smiles when pointing out that already in those days she worked on positions to be
presented at the Budget Committee for the Council, now actually being the recipient of
that work in Brussels. Being at the Slovenian Finance Ministry since 2001 and prior to that
at the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development, she has also been involved
in strategic issues on European integration and in the negotiations of accession chapters
on economic and monetary policy, as well as inancial and budgetary provisions. She
started working in 1994, having studied economy and social sciences, holding a master’s
degree in economics.
Andreja was invited to come to the ECA by the Slovenian Member in 2011 because he had
revenues in his portfolio of responsibilities and he was looking for an expert in that area.
After the mandate of Mr Cvikl ended, Andreja was ofered a new job in Brussels in an area
well known to her, working now directly for the Slovenian Permanent Representation to
the EU.
Living in Luxembourg
Andreja clearly has good memories of her stay in Luxembourg, both work-wise and
privately. Her eyes light up when talking about Luxembourg: ‘A small, yet well-organised
and multicultural country that welcomes foreigners. It certainly made me feel welcome.
Coming from a relatively small Member State myself Luxembourg did not appear that
small to me and ofered a clean and safe environment where silence is a lot easier to ind
than in Brussels. However, Brussels ofers some typical big city advantages.’ Andreja inds
the ECA to ofer a well-organised work environment, continuously looking to improve
itself and providing good working conditions to its employees.
Beneiting from ECA working experience
Having been involved in EU issues in the Slovenian government, subsequently working
as an EU civil servant at the ECA and now being posted at the Permanent Representation
in Brussels, Andreja has looked at the EU inancial lows from several perspectives. She
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Interview with Andreja Rovan
continued
26
considers this to be ‘an interesting mix that is very useful’ for her current job. When she
was in the ECA she focused on general improvements in the area of EU revenue, while
currently at the Council she represents more the position of her own country. Comparing
issues at EU level allows Member States to identify where they are and where there is
room for improvement. She adds that it took her a few weeks to change the ‘ECA’ hat for
the ‘Slovenian’ hat. When looking at speciic skills learned at the ECA Andreja chuckles,
saying that it was very practical to have learnt reading fast, which comes in handy when
she has to go through the tons of documents she needs to read for a Council meeting, for
example a dozen documents discussed during a morning session and 280 articles of the
Financial Regulation for the afternoon.
When asked what she misses being away from the ECA Andreja smiles and says: ‘I miss
assistance we had in the private oice. It was very useful in dealing with all the documents
and organising business trips. I miss the great teamwork we had in the private oice.’ In
her current job Andreja is more left to her own devices, while communicating a lot with
her counterpart in the Slovenian capital. Andreja adds: ‘At the ECA you are working in a
team, in the Council you work with 27 other Member States, and we work together in like-
minded groups to get certain views through. Council decisions have quite a direct impact
on recipients of European funds, ranging from aid for earthquake disasters to cohesion.’
Relections on the ECA’s 40 year anniversary
Andreja believes that the ECA, like any organisation operating in the EU, will have to adapt
quickly to new challenges in an ever changes environment. For the ECA she refers to the
new Financial Regulation, applicable from 2018 onwards, which indicates that institutions
should rely more on each other’s work. This probably will have also an impact on the ECA
work and approaches. Or at the inancial level, where, as Andreja points out: ‘2018 will
actually be the last budget year inanced by the EU28. The 2019 budget will be inanced
by the EU27, meaning diicult negotiations for the 2019 budget and certainly budget
decreases, also for EU institutions. There are also new instruments to be audited, and
many more will come after 2021.’
For her own future Andreja expects to be in Brussels till 2020, which may change in view
of the Slovenian Council presidency in 2021. She inds her current work not to be a walk
in the park, with many things going on, making it sometimes physically exhausting.
However, with her working experience at the national and European level Andreja is
conident she can do a good job and enjoy it. She does not go often to Luxembourg but
still has good contacts with former colleagues coming to Brussels, using the long lunch
breaks Council people need to take - due to hour restrictions for interpreters - to catch up
with them: ‘I very much appreciate their expertise and will have an open ear and a frank
eye for what happens in Luxembourg. I look forward meeting ECA colleagues in Brussels
in the future!’
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Problem or opportunity?
ECA’s ageing workforce
By Grainne Dempsey, ECA-COPEC vice-president
27
INTERCOPEC meeting 2017 – The challenges and opportunities
of our Ageing Workforce
Each year the Joint Committees on Equal Opportunities (COPEC) meet to discuss challenges
and opportunities to stimulate equal opportunities for the workforces of the diferent EU
institutions and to exchange good practices. In June this annual meeting was hosted by
the ECA and this article updates us on the current issues, good practices identiied and
recommendations adopted to optimize equal treatment and use of employees’ potential.
INTERCOPEC meeting, 29 June 2017 at the ECA
Demographic forecasts requiring early antipation
The human population is ageing at an unprecedented rate (UN, 2013). Ageing, deined as
’the process that results in rising proportions of older persons in the total population’ (UN,
2013), is generally the result of the combined efect of falling fertility and mortality rates. At
a global level, the percentage of people aged 65 years and older was 8.3 percent in 2015 and
is predicted to reach 16.0 percent by 2050 (UN, 2015). This will result in a doubling of the
world’s aged population between 2000 and 2050 (Connell, Nankervis, & Burgess, 2015).
Alongside this, demographic forecasts within the European Union point to large gaps
in employment because of the looming Baby Boomer retirements and a coming lack of
younger employees to replace older ones (European Commission, 2011). Thus, changes in
the demographic make-up have major consequences for society, organizations, and the
individuals who work in them. At a societal level, governments are alarmed about inancing
a growing retired population, leading them to take measures aimed at raising the legal age
of retirement. The consequence for the individual of an older retirement age is a longer
working life. This in turn means that the average age of workers within organizations will
most likely rise. Alongside this, because of fewer births, a lack of new workers will raise the
demand for labour, forcing organizations to keep older workers longer in service or lose
valuable human capital.
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Problem or opportunities: ECA Ageing Workforce
continued
28
These developments combined are leading to a higher average age of employees. This is in
itself not necessarily a problem, but it poses some major challenges for managers because
as people remain longer at work, diversity on the work loor increases. In fact, for the irst
time ever, four diferent generations are in the workforce. Managing diversity of any type is
important because on the one hand it may have added value, but on the other hand it can
be problematic, having negative efects on social structures within the organization. Poor
generational management, or a lack thereof, could adversely afect crucial organizational
processes such as knowledge transfer, innovation and general communications, which in
turn negatively afect organizational performance.
ECA’s Social Balance Sheet
ECA’s 2016 Social Balance Sheet conirms that, of the 917 staf in active service at the Court
as at 31 December 2016, over 50% of staf members are aged 44 or less. 27 out of the 67
Directors and Principal Managers are over 55 years of age, with 10 being over 60. This will
lead to a renewal of senior and middle management over the next 5 to 10 years. So, who is
keeping an eye on this trend and how can we prepare for the future?
ECA’s Joint Committee on Equal Opportunities (COPEC) is made up of ten members
appointed by the AIPN and the Staf Committee from across ECA’s services. Each EU
institution and agency has a COPEC committee whose role is to oversee the implementation
of equal opportunities policy at their institution. Once a year, all the COPECs gather together
for an INTERCOPEC meeting to exchange, compare, gauge progress and agree preventive
measures to ensure that the preparation of appropriate action programmes drawn up by
the Administrations comply with the requirements of the Staf Regulations as regards equal
opportunities within the institutions.
Hosting the 2017 INTERCOPEC meeting
On 29th June this year, ECA-COPEC hosted the 2017 INTERCOPEC meeting for the irst time
on our premises when thirty-ive dedicated COPEC members and Equal Opportunities
oicers representing ten institutions and agencies joined together in our Salle Aigner to
discuss ‘the challenges and opportunities of our Ageing Workforce’.
INTERCOPEC mapped out the key focus areas. INTERCOPEC also determined potential issues
and came up with solutions and recommendations in order to prepare our institutions for a
future in which the equal treatment of all staf is ensured and all individuals are encouraged
to realize their potential.
Identifying good practices and possible future actions
Together, and in separate working groups, we examined the fact that managers need to assure
workplace environments that promote exchange of knowledge, learning, and innovaion
between diferent generaions in order to assure posiive organizaional performance.
Managing intergeneraional relaions is a type of diversity management, but the coninuity of
pracices depends on the organizaional context, suggesing that within a longer ime frame
these pracices may need to be revised and/or changed. We ideniied good pracices within
the insituions and possible recommendaions for future acions and policy in terms of:
-
-
-
-
-
managing muligeneraional teams;
the need to adopt more lexible approaches to work procedures, task
management & roles;
lifelong learning;
more age-awareness training for managers;
how developing alternaive work arrangements might help retain our valued
staf longer;
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Problem or opportunities: ECA Ageing Workforce
continued
29
-
-
-
the importance of retaining the criical knowledge of our older workforce and
ensuring opimal knowledge transfer to the advantage of the insituions;
health and safety issues were also debated as important factors to ensure the
highest level of performance for long-serving staf.
On the basis of our indings, a set of conclusions were drawn up, approved by INTERCOPEC
and distributed to the Heads of HR for future policy consideraion, the main recommendaions
being:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Develop a consolidated process for
talent management
to ensure that all staf
members, without excepion, beneit from mobility and career development;
Recogniion of individual skills and experience of all staf members is a
fundamental basis of a well-managed team. Older staf should be able to ofer
their abiliies and train, when possible, younger staf through
peer to peer
sessions;
Opimize the use of talents and succession planning. Raise awareness of older
staf about the need for and beneits of
lifelong learning
and experience-
sharing;
Consider
reverse mentoring
as a tool that helps create stronger team relaions
to improve communicaion;
Develop
lexible working arrangements
(teleworking, part-ime, job-sharing,
etc.) for all staf and grades, regardless of age, focusing on results rather than
on presence, trust rather than control, on collaboraion and proacivity;
Preserve criical knowledge with a
handing over period
by recruiing the
replacement colleague before the reirement compeer leaves, enabling the
coexistence of both at work;
Acively work on well-being at work with prevenive annual check-ups and
addiional examinaions,
promoion of sports
to each person’s physical
condiion and needs, psychosocial assistance.
Create an
appropriate physical working environment
by seing up ergonomic
working places and reducing open space oices.
Next year’s INTERCOPEC meeing will again take place in Luxembourg when it will be hosted
by the Court of Jusice of the European Union. In the meanime, ECA-COPEC will coninue in its
role as overseeing the implementaion of the equal opportuniies policy, sharing informaion,
raising awareness amongst staf and organizing training and conferences and can be reached
at
[email protected]
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ECA needs more institutional visibility
30
Interview with
Jan Inghelram
From his oice in the west tower of the Court of Justice of
the European Union (CJEU) Jan Inghelram has an excellent
view towards downtown Luxembourg and a wide
perspective on the EU as such and the ECA in particular.
In his current job of director of CJEU Legal Service, he
continues to have a great interest in the institutional
position of the ECA, with an enthusiasm that shows the
ECA is still close at his heart.
Career path with coincidences
Jan’s professional career breathes all legal, but from many perspectives: in the ECA
Legal Service he started in 1992 and worked there till the end of 2000. Then he went on
secondment, as ECA oicial, to the CJEU, until he got appointed to his current position
in 2015. In the CJEU he worked as
referendaire,
irst for Avocate General Mischo and then
for two judges, Mr Timmermans and Ms Prechal. Jan has a law degree from the Catholic
University of Leuven and an LLM from the University of Virginia, USA. In 2011, while working
at the CJEU, he obtained a PhD at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, with a PhD
thesis on OLAF. Jan’s interest in that topic started when OLAF was created and Jan was at the
ECA Legal Service and closely following OLAF’s set-up.
Jan’s arrival at the ECA stems, as he calls it, ‘more from coincidence than anything else!’ He
got on the competition list of the Commission for lawyers. ‘A few months later I received
the only telegram I received in my life, originating from the ECA- an EU institution of which
existence I only heard when studying in the USA.’ This telegram was an invitation for an
interview to ill a post in the ECA’s Legal Service. Exactly 25 years ago, on 1 October 1992,
he started working at the ECA. ‘Both my wife and I were working in Brussels and we decided
to give it a try for three years. And we are still here,’ he concludes with a smile. ‘Going to the
CJEU was another coincidence,’ Jan adds: ‘My career has proceeded with opportunities at
a certain time. The Luxembourgish Advocate General needed somebody, my name was
mentioned and not much later I started a new working life across the street. Also here I
thought to do it for a few years, but it turned out diferently, and with great satisfaction.’
Getting the opportunity to work in the CJEU was like, as Jan put it, ‘the cherry on the cake in
EU law.’
Being legal in the ECA and in the CJEU
When asked about the diferences of working with legal issues in the ECA or in the CJEU Jan
is very clear: ‘the perspective is completely diferent: in a legal service, both in the ECA and
what I am doing now, you have more the attorney’s perspective, dealing with questions and
turning a problem into legal language, give advice or defend a position of my institution.
As
referendaire
one is inside the legal system and you have to approach a legal matter like a
judge would do, more balancing the arguments presented. My current work is quite similar
to what I did in the ECA, including defending positions to the outside world.’
Changing venue from the ECA to the CJEU did not have a real impact on Jan’s personal life
and with his family he managed to preserve a good work/life balance. Jan adds: ‘Of course
the work in the CJEU can be rather intense but if you organise yourself well as
referendaire
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Interview with Jan Inghelram
continued
31
you have a lot of liberty because you do not have many external obligations that distract
you from your work.’ Moving from Brussels to Luxembourg was a diferent story. Jan
explains: ‘I had been a lawyer at the Brussels bar and when starting at the ECA, combining
legal work while working in public service, I got the best of both worlds.’
Jan clearly has good memories about his time working at the ECA, listening to his
enthusiasm when speaking about the ECA: ‘When working in the ECA, a relatively small
institution, I had contact with almost everybody and saw the functioning of the institution
in many respects. I felt working close to the ticking heart of the institution. My work at
the ECA contained three types of work: support of audits, as a lawyer; institutional legal
questions; and personnel and contracts. I liked all three types but found the institutional
aspects often most interesting and dealt with several cases relating to the ECA’s mandate.’
Defending the CJEU…in court!
In his current work as director of the CJEU’s Legal Service Jan is, with the support of ive
staf members, the institution’s lawyer, providing opinions and defending the institution
in cases in court. When invited to specify what he does now he continues: ‘Our most
important cases now are the ‘undue delay’ cases, being action for damages against the
institution, brought by parties complaining that there was undue delay in rendering
judgement and that those delays caused them damage. Thus far, the General Court has
awarded a total of 1,5 million euro in damages in four of such cases. Now the cases are in
appeal, actually both sides went into appeal.’ Jan inds this from an institutional point of
view an extremely interesting case, touching upon the independence of the judiciary.
ECA’s evolution continued
Comparing the ECA of his early working days there with where it is now he believes the
ECA went through an enormous evolution: ‘In the early nineties there was a discussion
whether the ECA should issue press releases or not. Compare this with the way the
ECA communicates now about its reports, and how attractive these reports look like,
with interesting graphs, photos, etc. Perhaps not unusual now, but nevertheless a very
big change and the ECA makes a real efort to show what it does.’ Being away now
for 17 years Jan inds it diicult to indicate how the ECA can further evolve but he
considers readability of reports and also reaching the younger generation using modern
communication means important elements in that discussion. However, as Jan put it,
'that discussion goes beyond the ECA and is a challenge for all EU institutions. Many
citizens are puzzled about what the EU is doing so many institutions are struggling with
similar questions like the ECA does. And perhaps it is even more diicult for the ECA
because its role is more technical.’
This brings Jan to another observation: in his view the ECA very often relects upon its
mission: what to do and how to do it. He presents two reasons for this: the ECA’s mission in
the Treaty is something unique, combining elements of diferent national systems. There is
therefore no single source of inspiration to deine its mission. Secondly the ECA Members
come from systems of supreme audit institutions with diferent experiences, mandates
and positions. Jan continues: ‘This is quite diferent for the CJEU: being a judge is much
more clear cut, no discussion about the position and the core job. No matter from which
member state, the judges share the same ideas of judges’ independence and the need to
motivate your judgements. In a way the added value of the CJEU is a lot easier to identify
than for example for the ECA.’
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Interview with Jan Inghelram
continued
32
ECA role in the EU legal debate
On the question where Jan thinks the ECA can excel further in the future he willingly shares
one of his legal perspectives on the ECA, underlining that it is just a personal relection:
‘In my view there has always been a certain struggle to get the audit of legality as full part
integrated in the work of the ECA. But it is something written in the Treaty. Moreover, the
EU is a legal order and you cannot circumvent the legal debate in the EU. Otherwise, you do
not go to the heart of the EU. The CJEU is the center of the legal debate, and the institutions
come to the CJEU for that. They discuss eminent legal issues and they know each other, also
the people from their legal services. But somehow the ECA is absent from that.’ Jan suggests
that perhaps the ECA could consider intervening in a case before the EU courts to give its
opinion in a matter in which it has expertise, for example, in a case where a Member State
goes against the Commission because of a clearance of accounts dispute. ‘The ECA, as an
institution, has the right to do so under the Statute of the CJEU.’ Jan gives an example of
a case where in the end the CJEU ruled in favor of a certain position which had been the
starting point for the ECA from the beginning. ‘Why not go there as ECA and explain, thereby
also enhancing the visibility of the ECA’
Innovation with a no nonsense approach
Jan especially remembers the ECA as an innovate place to work and smiles when explaining
this: ‘When I changed jobs in 2001 and put on the computer screen I looked again at the blue
screen of WordPerfect 5, which had been abolished ive years earlier at the ECA. Informatics
has developed a lot here since then. I always found that the ECA is smaller, thereby able
to react quicker, with people being rather pro-active. I give you another example. With
the enlargement of 2004 the ECA had its buildings ready, which could not be said for all
institutions, some only having their buildings ready for this purpose in 2008. I believe that
the way it is functioning can be labeled innovative, a bit like Luxembourg, using its size to
easily anticipate on changes.’
This brings Jan to an issue which he always appreciated while working in the ECA’s Legal
Service and tries to apply in his current position: going for a pragmatic approach. Jan clariies
his point: ‘We tried to be very client oriented: after receiving a request from a service, make
contact with them, try to ind out what they want to know, etc..’ He gives an example: ‘One
day at the ECA Legal Service we received a letter from the Luxembourgish administration,
sent to all the employers in Luxembourg.’ Jan continues how they had contacted other
institutions about this: ‘Turned out that one legal service had already written a thick opinion
on it. In our service we had just the idea to irst call the Luxembourgish administration to
ind out what they wanted. Turned out that the form should have never been sent to EU
institutions at all. To me a ‘no nonsense’ approach by which all potential legal problems were
solved at once!’
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ECA looking beyond money
33
Interview with
Kamila Lepkowska
Speaking with Kamila is speaking with somebody
full of ideas, clearly based on a lot of thinking and
analysis. And a lot of enthusiasm for how the ECA
environment enabled Kamila to develop herself, both
in knowledge and skills, to become an important
contributor to ECA reports on inancial and economic
governance issues.
Working with conidence towards structured thinking and writing
When Kamila arrived at the ECA in 2010 she started in Chamber I with a performance
audit on rural development. A few years later she moved to auditing inancial economic
governance issues in the FEG team! Before joining the ECA Kamila worked in a business
advisory function in two of the Big Four companies - mainly Deloitte. And prior to that
she worked for a TV station, a Polish business channel on CNBC licence, reporting mostly
on economic developments in Poland. Kamila holds a master degree in international
economics/European, studies and a master degree in sociology, obtained in the UK. While
working at the ECA Kamila got a PhD in economics, focusing on the labour market and
migration issues. Thinking back she says: ‘What I really liked about my studies in the later
phase where all the skills you developed and the need to structure your thinking and
writing, which is also rather important for writing audit reports.’
During her studies Kamila was actively campaigning for Poland to join the EU. Like many
of her friends she decided to try to work for the EU, contributing to the EU project, and
participated in a competition in 2005: ‘Despite not being a trained auditor I decided to
go for it and did interviews on a rainy day in Luxembourg. When starting here I quickly
saw that audit is a broad concept and that for example performance auditing requires a
wide range of skills. Kamila looks back with great pleasure to her work in the ECA: ‘What I
really appreciate is that, from the beginning, with only a few years of working experience,
I could work rather independently with several responsibilities. And what I thought and
how I assessed things was really taken seriously and made a diference. It may sound
counter-intuitive to some people but I found and ind the ECA not to be very hierarchical,
at least not in the organisation of its work and compared to the private sector.’ Kamila
found this all to be very encouraging and adds: ‘This experience continued when I
became head of task, with clear responsibilities and a lot of trust given to me - and also
to other colleagues - like for example in an adversarial procedure with the auditee, very
re-assuring! With such conidence given individuals can grow much faster.’ Comparing
this with similar seniority positions in her previous job Kamila thinks one did not have
that much independence and exposure as people have in the ECA. On this aspect she
concludes: ‘What is also great is the possibility of learning in depth in several areas.’
Growing common denominator
Regarding facilities ofered by the ECA Kamila observes that regarding shops or
restaurants there is not a lot nearby the ECA and the ECA ills somehow this gap with
the facilities ofered: ‘I really appreciate the sporting facilities, both ECA-FIT and the
sports classes. I suspect I would do less sports activities if this was not available. What is
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Interview with Kamila Lepkowska
continued
34
also good are the events organised by colleagues, like going skiing with an enthusiastic
group.’ Another aspect Kamila mentions is lexitime: ‘It very much helps to organise work
and gives some lexibility when travelling back to your country, and coop better with the
sometimes substantial luctuations in work load.’ All in all Kamila is quite happy with her
decision for Luxembourg.
While many people praise the diversity in the EU institutions Kamila is rather down to
earth on that and sees increasingly less diversity: Most people are coming from similar
universities, with similar backgrounds. With all the media and internet many things got
‘popularised’. Of course there is language diversity but beyond that there is also a lot
of common ground, a common denominator even. We are increasingly raised with the
same culture and often even have similar social backgrounds. In the 21st century people
from for example the Netherlands and Poland have much more in common - going to
university, living in a big city, following an Erasmus programme, etc. - than somebody
living in a small city doing a rather speciic job in a diferent social environment.
Focus on systemic issues
Looking forward Kamila believes that for the EU, including the ECA, a key word will be
'volatility' since, as she phrased it, ‘nowadays there is a lot of uncertainty on what is going
to happen next year. Core values are increasingly questioned in Member States. Think
about issues like the rule of law and even some essential democratic values. This will
require us as ECA to look much more at systemic issues.’ When asked what this practically
means she speciies: ‘This means asking what the general framework is of the underlying
projects and programmes we are looking at and whether the well-functioning of that
framework is well ensured.’ Kamila hopes that with the technological developments,
including digitalisation, there will be much better management and controls at the
level of individual projects and programmes: ‘This can liberate sources for other work,
like auditing the increasing risks at systemic level. We have to start questioning some
assumptions we never questioned before, mostly just because a country is a member of
the EU.’ She adds: ‘Many people would not expect to see some of the shifts that appear
now, with real consequences. It reminds me about at Fukuyama’s end of history: one path,
but we see something else now.’
For Kamila one of the challenges for the ECA will be to use technology to its fullest extent:
‘Soon we will have full dominance of a fully digital generation: among our audience,
among our readers, among our auditors. A challenge but a positive one: readers of our
special reports who were raised fully digitally. This requires that our reports to be more
playful, more interactive, more diverse in levels of information. And the challenge will
also be how to reach this generation.’ Kamila is worried how to combine these, as she sees
it, interactive presentations, with the ECA quality arrangements: ‘After all, the power of
an ECA report is not that it is just somebody’s view but has been reviewed by a number
of layers, contributing to the strength of our reports. Preserving quality is essential for
preserving our authority!’
From following the money to following the activity
Kamila raises a topic on which she has been quite active within the ECA during the last
few years: equal opportunities. She has really seen improvement, also due to the activities
of the Joint Committees on Equal Opportunities (COPEC), in how the topic is perceived
since she got involved in the subject several years ago: ‘Then the topic was seen as
‘surprising’, if not considered as ‘polemic.’' Kamila recently presented an internal paper on
auditors’ possibilities to look at equal opportunities: ‘I would like the attention for the topic
to materialise into a real audit on gender equality. This can be done by doing a dedicated
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Interview with Kamila Lepkowska
continued
35
audit on gender equality, for example in the EU institutions on their HR policy on gender
equality. But my preference would be to look at gender equality as the fourth E, or
perhaps the ifth E when considering environment.’ For Kamila with this approach gender
equality would be more embedded in performance audits, in addition to the traditional
three E’s, being economy, eiciency and efectiveness.
Analysing further the developments in the ECA since she arrived Kamila thinks that
regarding its audit focus the ECA is on the right track: ‘We are moving away from following
the money approach and are increasingly looking at activities, auditing the realisation of
objectives. Establishing the FEG team was quite a step into this direction, not looking that
much at what was spent but more looking at how new institutions where taking up new
tasks.’ Kamila continues saying that with the inancial crisis it became even more obvious
for the EU as a whole that EU budget expenditure is not always the solution but that many
supervisory activities and macro-economic coordination, where no money is involved in
the sense of budgetary expenditure, was needed. For Kamila this reinforces her earlier
point: ‘In other words: a diferent systemic approach was needed. What the Commission is
doing with the supervision of the market can have a huge impact for the citizen. There is
such a shift in the EU and there has to be a further shift in what the ECA is doing. I am very
pleased that the ECA has already taken important steps into that direction.’
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For the interests of the staf: ECA Staf
Committee chairs and their focal points
By Francois Picouleau, Chair of the ECA Staf Committee
1
36
When building a new organisation the voice of the staf also needs to be organised. Only a few
months after its establishment, the ECA College enabled the creation of its irst Staf Committee, which
has been an essential interlocutor for the institution on improving working conditions at the ECA.
Highlighting the episodes of the diferent Staf Committee chairs François Picouleau looks back at
what characterised its chairs, both in personality and their focal points during their mandates.
While the ECA celebrates its 40th birthday this year, the Staf Committee, being just a little
bit younger, and established in 1978, celebrates its 39th. Hundreds of Staf Committee
Members have since been elected and while it is not possible to celebrate each and every
one of them here, it is clear they all exhibited tremendous commitment and dedicated
valuable time and energy to represent and defend the best interests of all staf. This article
focuses on the Staf Committee Chairs who presided from 1978 until today, and whose
names might not be familiar amongst younger colleagues. Only two of the 141 staf
members who elected the irst Staf Committee on 24-26 October way back in 1978 are
still at the ECA today.
Unfortunately due to the diiculties in retrieving information because of incomplete
archives, and memories since faded, not all Staf Committee Chairs will be equally
mentioned. We could unfortunately not get suicient material on Richard Michel, who
chaired the Staf Committee from 1985 to 1986.
ECA's current Staf Committee
1. This article, based on the testimonies of Raymond Claudel, Marc De Saedeleer, Hendrik Fehr, Volker Hoyer, Vassilios Kalentzis, Bernard
Loesel, Eric Lombois, François Picouleau and Michel Pouzol, was made possible thanks to the supportive work of Rafaella Gustapane and
Gilberto Moggia, the ECA’s archivists, and Fiona Urquhart and Fiona Kotziampasi.
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For the interests of the staf: ECA Staf Committee chairs and their focal
points
continued
37
The ’Pioneers’: Victor Gillard † and Margot Reuter
On 13 July 1978, having received the agreement of a committee elected by the ad-hoc
General Assembly of 5 July 1978, the ECA College adopted a decision to create the irst Staf
Committee. It was elected on 24-26 October 1978 by 141 staf members and was made up
of 16 members and its Chair was Victor Gillard. Women and men were equally represented
and given responsibilities. When Victor Gillard suddenly died in car accident, on 28 February
1980, Margot Reuter took over from 12 March until the end of the Committee’s mandate, in
November 1980. The ECA, being a new Institution at the time, needed to establish rules and
regulations for the recruitment and the management of new staf, and the Staf Committee
actively monitored the situation and did its best to inluence ECA’s decisions in favour of all
staf. The inclusion of a grill in the daily menu – an option still existing nearly 40 years on -
was also suggested by the irst Staf Committee, which was also irst in proposing a training
course for newcomers.
The ’Director General’: Brian Gray
ECA Staf may have forgotten that Brian Gray, better known for his brilliant career at the
European Commission, where he became Chief Accountant and subsequently Director
General of the Internal Audit Service, was previously ECA Staf Committee Chair in the early
80’s. After his retirement in 2012 and in order to keep him busy, the F4E (Fusion for Energy)
Governing Board appointed Brian Gray as Chair of the Audit Committee for a irst term of
two years from 1 January 2016.
The ’Unfortunate’ : Yves Courrier †
Yves Courrier was a highly valued auditor who spent most of his ECA career auditing own
resources. As chairman of the Staf Committee from 1984 to 1985, he launched the irst
survey on the auditors’ working conditions, which was presented and discussed by the ECA
College at its seminar in Echternach in 1985. His premature and unexpected death in early
1985 on ECA premises brought about a wave of regret and sympathy among the staf. A
substantial amount was collected in his memory to be donated to charity. The cafeteria of
the future K1 building which was opened 1988 was dedicated in his name.
The 'Well living': Bernard Loesel
After Yves Courrier’s sudden death on ECA premises, Bernard Loesel took over until the end
of the Committee’s mandate, during the Court’s Presidency of Mr Pierre Lelong. He was a
member of the Union Syndical and ran the Staf Committee with a goal to ensure smooth
relations between Staf and top Management. He was later appointed Head of Division
(equivalent to current Principal Manager) and became the Head of the Private oice of Mr
François Colling, the Luxembourgish Member at the time. Now retired, Bernard Loesel is
involved in charity work for socially disadvantaged people.
The ‘Welt Meister Triathlet‘: Hendrik Fehr
Hendrik Fehr, a high ranking auditor at the time, won the SC elections by receiving more
than 50% of the votes and chaired from 1987 to 1990. As Staf Committee Chair, he always
had an open and constructive dialogue with ECA’s President Marcel Mart and the Head of
the 'Staf & Administration' division. He subsequently became Head of Division and Director.
Since his retirement, Hendrik Fehr has remained closely involved in ECA activities, for
example, chairing AD Audit competitions.
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For the interests of the staf: ECA Staf Committee chairs and their focal
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The ’foie gras Fan’: Raymond Claudel
Raymond Claudel is the only Staf Committee member to chair the Staf Committee
twice for non-consecutive periods, once from 1990 to 1991 and then from 1994 to 1995.
He remained in his post as an auditor during his irst mandate but was seconded full
time during his second mandate, where he was also ofered the support of a full time
administrative assistant. Then the Staf Committee mainly focused on staf working
conditions, especially for auditors and secretaries. Raymond Claudel subsequently became
Head of the External Relations Unit and is now retired.
The ’Reformist’: Michel Pouzol
Michel Pouzol, who chaired the Staf Committee from 1992 to 1994, set up a list where
11 out of the 12 candidates elected were supported by the Union Syndicale. In order
to ensure his duties, Michel Pouzol requested, and gained, for the irst time in the
history of Staf Committee Chairs, a full time secondment and the support of a full
time administrative assistant. The Staf Committee at the time focused on the role of
the auditors within the ECA, the equal opportunity policy, the organisation of internal
competitions to move from one of the former categories (A, B,C, D) to another, setting up
fair and transparent evaluation and promotion processes and the introduction of lexible
working time arrangements.
The ’Unexpected’: Vassilios Kalentzis
Vassilios Kalentzis was elected Staf Committee Chair in 1996 by the members of the
Staf Committee, after the resignation of the former Staf Committee Chair and remained
till 1997. He stated that his election came as a surprise, as another Staf Committee
member was expected to win, and that he felt that he did not receive the support of the
committee. He is now retired.
The ’Negotiator’: Eric Lombois
A qualiied accountant, statistician and lawyer, he was elected on an independent
platform as Chair of the ECA's Staf Committee from 1996 to 1998, following a hard-
fought campaign against the list presented by the trade unions. Some electors still
remember the originality of the ideas presented, not to mention the vivid yellow colour
of the independent list's campaign material which captured the voters' imaginations
compared with the less than inspiring colour and content of the material ofered by their
opponents. In the course of his term as Chair he was seconded full-time, supported by a
secretary. Strong in the knowledge that things are done best when you do them yourself,
under his guidance the Committee dealt principally with proposals for lexible working
arrangements and the reform of the staf assessment process. He has mixed feelings
about his time as Chair, mainly because of the slow decision-making in the Plenary
Committee, where some meetings were like random collisions of free electrons. This made
it impossible to reach clear positions on subjects such as internal competitions, regardless
of the then perceived ‘little traps’ set by the Administration of that time and a few diicult
negotiations which were almost like boxing matches.
The ‘Artist’: Ute Seinecke †
Ute Seinecke was a translator in the German translation Unit and the second woman,
after Margot Reuter, to chair the Staf Committee from 1998 to 2000. The Staf Committee
at that time was elected on 27-29 April 1998 by 515 staf members. Ute Seinecke
concentrated on making observations on ECA staf-related policies, monitoring the
drafting of the new codes of good administrative conduct and professional ethics,
expressing criticisms over the ECA’s recruitment policy, monitoring the reform of the Staf
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For the interests of the staf: ECA Staf Committee chairs and their focal
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39
Regulations, supporting the ECA translation service and dealing with IT innovations. Ute
Seinecke stated that the relationship between the Committee and the two Presidents of
the Court, Mr Bernhard Friedmann and Mr Jan Karlsson, were calm and constructive and
praised Mr Karlsson for his ’great open-mindedness’ towards staf matters. The relationship
with the Secretary-General, on the other hand, was more diicult when it came to
recruitment policies and audit-related issues.
The ’Gentleman’: Silvio Busacca
Silvio Busacca chaired the Staf Committee from 15 June 2000, till his retirement in July
2001. He is probably the only Staf Committee Chair whose name remains in the ECJ
case law. The Busacca Case
C-434/98 P
(judgement of the ECJ about special measures to
terminate the service of oicials of the European Communities) is still quoted and used as
one of the main references in this matter. Above all, Silvio was unanimously appreciated as
a gentleman who behaved with the utmost courtesy towards all colleagues, regardless of
their rank or age.
The ’University teacher’: Jean-Yves Bassole
Jean-Yves Bassole, chaired the Staf Committee from 21 June 2001 to 10 September 2002,
being elected with the support of the Union Syndicale. He went on leave for personal
grounds in 2002 and retired in 2013. Jean-Yves Bassole, used to work as translator in the
French translation Unit. He is now Head of the neo Hellenic department, Itiri, Faculté des
Langues, at Strasbourg University
The ’Spokesperson’: Volker Hoyer
Volker Hoyer was elected Chair by the members of the Staf Committee in 2002 for a two-
year mandate and then again in 2004 for a three-year mandate till 2007, without having
ever received the highest number of votes in the general elections. He was also a member
of Union Syndicale. During his mandates the Staf Committee put a special emphasis on
recruitment procedures, professional training, staf reporting and promotions. During
his two mandates the 2004 reform of the Staf Regulations, the establishment of the
European Communities Personnel Selection Oice (EPSO), the enlargement of the EU by
10 new Member States (open competitions, screenings, recruitment of staf, oices, new
building(s), …), and the introduction of a new Competence and Performance Appraisal
System (COMPASS) inluenced signiicantly the activities of the Staf Committee. Volker
Hoyer was seconded to the Staf Committee full time and was given the support of two
full time administrative assistants. Everyone still remembers the impressive speeches that
Volker Hoyer delivered to ECA Members and staf at the end-of-year receptions organised
by the ECA President.
The ’Tall guy’: Marc De Saedeleer
Marc De Saedeleer took over as Chair from Volker Hoyer when Volker went into retirement
in 2007. He was elected Chair by the members of the Staf Committee in 2009. Marc De
Saedeleer was seconded full time and received the support of two full time administrative
assistants, which was reduced to one in 2012. During his chairmanship, the Staf
Committee focused on recruitment policies and practises, internal competitions, staf
evaluation and promotion, mission guide, teleworking, badging for all staf, attestation
and certiication procedures and survey of the canteen evaluation. The opening of the
European School II in Bertrange/Mamer created numerous organisational issues for the
staf concerned. Marc De Saedeleer paid due care to social activities, such as the Annual
Staf Committee party and the St. Nicholas children's party. After his mandate, he joined
the European Commission in Brussels – DG Employment, Social Afairs and Inclusion (DG
EMPL), as inter-institutional coordinator, on 1st February 2013.
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For the interests of the staf: ECA Staf Committee chairs and their focal
points
continued
40
Current Staf Committee Chair: François Picouleau
François Picouleau, member of the Union Syndicale, has been chairing the Staf Committee
since 2012. The current Staf Committee puts great emphasis on the well-being of all staf
at the Court, actively promoting teleworking and lexible working time arrangements for all
Staf. In 2015 the Staf Committee launched a Staf survey on working conditions and well-
being to get valuable feed-back from Staf and it has now become an annual activity of the
Staf Committee. The Staf Committee works towards equal opportunities exclusively based
on merit, with special emphasis on fair and transparent staf recruitment, evaluation and
promotion or upgrade. The Staf Committee also supports ECA staf dealing with the 2014
reform of the Staf Regulations and the organisational reform of the ECA.
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ECA can add most value through in-depth
analysis
41
Interview with
Nicola Scafarto
With a great appetite for legal issues in an EU context
Nicola Scafarto is an ECA colleague who has seen
many sides of the law from diferent institutional
perspectives. He looks back at his experiences, also
obtained during six years at the ECA, and it is clear
that his legal appetite is by far not over yet.
Being a professional in law
Nicola started in the EIB Legal Service almost two years ago, having worked in the ECA
since 2009. Prior to that he was a legal oicer in the Commission in Luxembourg, where
he mainly dealt with legislative procedures, co-decision, comitology, better regulation
and complaints. Before that Nicola was a barrister in Italy and a law graduate from the
University of Napoli.
Getting to interview Nicola was not easy because it is a very busy period for him at the
EIB. His service has about 190 staf members, divided into two directorates: one for
corporate (institutional afairs), the other for inancing (dealing with contracts). Nicola is
in the corporate directorate and explains what he does: ‘When the EIB inances a project
it requires the promoter of the project inanced to comply with the speciic rules on
public procurement. For projects outside Europe the EIB requires the promoter to follow
the principles of the EU Treaty, as speciied in the directives on public procurement. My
colleagues and I need to make sure, together with the project team that the calls for
tenders launched by promoters comply with these principles and rules. Furthermore I also
deal with issues related to corporate procurement, i.e. the EIB’s own tender procedures.’
Passion for legal analysis
What made Nicola decide to go to the ECA? Nicola always had a speciic interest in legal
analysis, already when he worked as a barrister. When working at the Commission he
contributed to several regulations. Looking back Nicola says: ‘At the ECA my appetite for
legal analysis and related issues was certainly satisied and I had six pleasant and very
interesting years. In a sense I am still with the ECA because I have been seconded to the
EIB and halfway through the period of four years secondment.’
The intensity and quantity of legal analysis has been a driver for each time when changing
jobs, also when he was a barrister: ‘When looking for a new challenge I thought the EIB
Legal Service might ofer such a challenge, and I am not disappointed. It involves plenty
of legal analysis and is also very dynamic work. In addition the element of time pressure is
there since the EIB inances projects in 150 countries all over the world.
Institutional experience put into perspective
When asked which of the things he picked up in the ECA are useful for his current work
Nicola does not need to think long: ‘Many things I learned at the ECA turn out to be
very useful now, ranging from corporate questions on mandate to my legal experience
related to procurement - particularly from the audit perspective. I think my institutional
background provides a solid basis.’ Vice versa he inds that his work in the EIB is
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Interview with Nicola Scafarto
continued
42
characterised by dynamism, which he likes, but sometimes can also lead to some stress: ‘I
get a lot of experience which will also be valuable for the ECA in case I go back to the ECA.’
Nicola continues: ‘Sometimes we are asked in the morning to deliver something by COB,
i.e. by closure of business the same day. The value of projects the EIB inances can range
from some million euros to some billion euros, and our reactions need to include all the
legal implications while being delivered in time. This is a balance to be struck every day.
This means that you have to rely, and learn to rely, on the work of colleagues.’ Nicola inds
working in the EIB quite diferent from the way of working in the ECA. He believes that it
is more like working in a private law irm. However, he underlines that EIB, set up by the
treaties, is part of the EU family: ‘A all projects inanced by the EIB are approved by the
European Commission. This applies not only to projects inanced by the Commission but
for all projects inanced by the EIB.’
Excel in what you are good at
Another thing Nicola likes about the EIB is that it focuses on things it is really good at.
Nicola believes that this approach might also be beneicial for the ECA: ‘The more the ECA
digs into speciic projects, the higher the added value of its work will be. This means that
the ECA has to choose the subjects which can really make a diference for the European
citizen.’ Nicola thinks the ECA can be a bit bolder in its work and reports. He adds: ‘The ECA
has the capacity, the expertise and the skills needed to become an even more important
actor within the EU institutions.’ Nicola inds there are many people in the ECA determined
to make a good job, to make a diference with their work for the EU. On that aspect Nicola
concludes: ‘The EU is in diicult times, with issues like migration and political instability.
The ECA has tools to help here.’
Looking back at the career decisions he took Nicola says: ‘I would make the same choices
to get an interesting and rewarding professional experience. After all, enjoying your work
is part of the quality of life. I wish all the best to my ECA colleagues and congratulate the
ECA with 40 years of institutional service!’
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ECA needs to work more with national
parliaments
43
Interview with
Karlijn van Bree
Karlijn has worked in the ECA from October 2014
to September 2017 and has only recently started
as lobbyist in Brussels, working for the three
northern provinces of the Netherlands. Her oicial
job title is ‘Advisor in Public Afairs’ in Brussels.
Looking back …and forward with Karlijn.
A classicist taking a U-turn
Karlijn has worked from 2014 to 2017 in the private oice of Alex Brenninkmeijer, ECA
Member, assisting particularly on relations with the Dutch parliament, media and other
public relations and stakeholder issues. Before coming to the ECA Karlijn worked as a
staf member for a parliamentary committee in The Hague, dealing with agriculture and
economic afairs, mostly also with an EU dimension. Prior to that she was assistant and
press oicer for a Dutch parliamentarian and also in the Dutch ministry of Economic
Afairs. Karlijn has a classical background, having a university degree in Greek and Latin,
but also studied European policy-making in Brussels.
Karlijn came to the ECA because she saw it as an excellent opportunity to realise her
interest to work with the EU. Several topics she had been dealing with in the Dutch
parliament also related to the EU and she did not have to think that long deciding to
come to the ECA: ‘Working in the private oice of Alex Brenninkmeijer was a very good
learning experience, also because of the speciic tasks I got to work on. Some of my
responsibilities related to what I was already used to, for example improving relations with
national parliaments.’ Karlijn is quite clear: ‘My experience at ECA has made me a more
interesting candidate for my current employer. And I am always open for new things and
positive towards change.’
Realising EU potential as a lobbyist
Karlijn is clearly up for the new challenge in Brussels, building up a network and inding
out where opportunities can be for the three Dutch Northern provinces, cooperating
towards the EU under the name ‘SNN’, which stands for
Samenwerkingsverband Noord-
Nederland.
As advisor in public afairs she is closely cooperating with colleagues of these
provinces in similar functions in both Brussels and The Hague. Karlijn underlines that ‘my
new job requires a lot of networking, reading a lot, creativity, discipline and discretion
going around the institutions.’ But listening to the ease and comfort when speaking
about her job Karlijn is clearly conident that it works out well. ‘I feel very encouraged on
how I want to approach my new responsibilities and will cooperate with specialists, like
on hydrogen energy, circular economy, healthy ageing, etc.. ‘ For Karlijn it is clear that
cooperation is essential, especially in the EU, no matter at what level: ‘Provinces do not
have the luxury to work in isolation and cooperation with like-minded regions is the only
way towards sustainable policies and results. For the regions it will be important to be
visible, speak up when you can bring something and also receiving information that ties
into their strengths.’
Karlijn believes that the insights she has obtained in the ECA on which elements are
crucial in EU decision making-process, on inancial lows, procurement processes,
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Interview with Karlijn van Bree
continued
44
accountability issues, etc., are very useful for her current position. She adds: ‘In the
beginning I had to get used to the technical component of audit, reading several reports
with highlights to be sent to the Dutch parliament. I thereby got familiar with several
topics, particularly related to performance audits, and implementation problems and
successes in speciic EU policy areas. And on how the institutions work in practice.’ Karlijn
adds that for the future it will be very important also for all EU institutions not to lose track
of the big picture ‘why we are all doing this.‘
Thinking beyond the institutional framework
Karlijn found it particularly pleasant to work in the ECA with 28 diferent nationalities: ‘Also
for life after work I found Luxembourg to be very international, and quite diferent from
The Hague but also from Brussels. Another element making Karlijn fond of Luxembourg is
that she found her partner in Luxembourg, who fortunately was positive about moving to
Brussels. About moving cities Karlijn says: ‘I often feel more European than Dutch and I am
happy to be in ‘little Europe’ called Brussels. In my new function several levels come into
play, which, in a certain way, is very European.’ One of the aspects Karlijn will miss is the
overall atmosphere of friendliness in the ECA, an important element for her in personal
well-being.
One of the issues the ECA can further develop is for Karlijn career development: ‘Perhaps a
bit close to my personal situation but still a general attention point. The ECA ofers many
training courses but I think more can be done individual career planning, with individual
guidance ofered also by HR. This might be, but not only, the case for people in an
assistant position who have career aspirations.’ She adds with a smile: ‘Otherwise people
will start searching to realise them elsewhere.’ Karlijn understands that the institutional
framework may present barriers for mobility but the starting point for her should be that
possibilities are created instead of barriers. Furthermore, she believes that ‘becoming an
oicial can be an interesting goal but at the same time can create a barrier for further
growth and career outlook. I am convinced that active career development will lead to
happier staf members.’
As to the core work of the ECA Karlijn inds that it will be important to propel the ECA
products more to the attention of other institutions, and not only at EU level: ‘The ECA
has a crucial role in transparency and accountability issues and can increase its proile on
that. The dilemma for the ECA is that it is not in the driving seat, the more reason why its
recommendations need to be practical and convincing to people who are in that position
to take them on board. I believe the ECA can work more through national parliaments
because they often are the power basis for these same decision-makers. Increasing
communication and awareness at national level is another big challenge, be it through
parliaments, national media but also national non-governmental players like businesses
and NGOs.’
A nice continent to live in and work for
Karlijn has taken the opportunity, also enabled by the ECA, to do a number of courses
on the EU and her enthusiasm for Europe has only increased: ‘I believe it is the nicest
continent with its enormous diversity in cultures and history. The unique character of
Europe is sometimes underestimated.’ She would certainly be interested in a career in
the EU institutions but not just any job, it should it her overall interest, which is more in
the area of communication, connecting people through common topics and interests:
‘It should be the right it, I would not go into it for the money. If it is not the right it
becoming an EU oicial can also become a highway to unhappiness.’ She concludes:
‘Contributing to the EU can be done in many ways and I am keen to deliver my share.’
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Reaching out : ECA delegation meets Council
Presidency in Estonia
By Marc-Oliver Heidkamp, private oice of President Lehne
45
The new 2018-2020 ECA Strategy were
one of the many subjsects discussed
during the recent meetings between
the ECA and representatives of the
Estonian government and parliament.
Marc-Oliver Heidkamp gives us details
about the visit last month.
Left to right: Toomas Vitsut; Tarmo Kruusimäe, Members of the Estonian
Parliament; interpreter; Aivar Sõerd, Member of of the Estonian Parliament;
Mindaugas Pakstys, Head of Private Oice of Rimandas Sadzius;
Rimantas Sadzius, ECA Member; Klaus-Heiner Lehne, ECA President
Meetings with the Estonian goverment and parliament
One of the ECA goals is to strengthen its relations with governments and national parliaments.
On 12 September 2017, an ECA delegation led by President Klaus-Heiner Lehne, paid an oicial
visit to Estonia. The visit was of particular importance as the country holds the presidency of
the Council of the EU during the second half of 2018. President Lehne was accompanied by
the ECA’s Estonian Member Juhan Parts and the Member for institutional relations Rimantas
Šadžius.
The delegation met Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas as well as Finance Minister Toomas
Tõniste to emphasize the important role the ECA has and the valuable contribution it can make
to help the Council and the Member States to successfully respond to the challenges the EU is
facing. Both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister expressed their appreciation for the
work the ECA is doing and how useful it will be for the Council’s future work.
The delegation also met with members of the Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) to discuss
topical EU budgetary aspects related to our audit work. The members of the Parliament
showed great interest in the ECA’s expertise.
The ‘YES’ Young EUROSAI Conference
Moreover, the delegation had the opportunity to meet with the Estonian Auditor General
Dr. Alar Karis and staf of the national audit oice (Riigikontroll). President Lehne gave an
overview of the current work of the ECA and answered questions by the Riigikontroll staf.
On 13 September Mr Lehne also addressed the 'YES' Young EUROSAI Conference of European
supreme audit institutions. The conference, titled ’Updates available,’ took place in Tallinn
from 11 to 14 September 2017 with the participation of two junior auditors from the ECA.
The President emphasized the need, also for the ECA, to stay up-to-date in an increasingly
digitalized society. The visit ended with a short visit to the 'e-Estonia Showroom' where the
delegation was provided with a brieing on practical aspects of Estonia’s digital agenda.
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Reaching out: ECA contribution to Maltese NAO
conference on accountability
By Annette Farrugia, Private Oice of Leo Brincat, ECA Member
46
On 12 September the ECA organized a joint
seminar with the National Audit Oice (NAO)
of Malta addressing the theme ‘Audit follow-up
in the Public Sector: Enhancing Accountability.’
With the objective to reach out to stakeholders
to discuss how external auditors can enhance
their added value an ECA delegation spoke
with representatives of Maltese ministries
and agencies and the Maltese NAO. Annette
Farrugia ills us in on the main issues discussed.
Charles Deguara, Auditor General, NAO and Leo Brincat, ECA Member
Audit recommendations and impact
The joint seminar was aimed at addressing the follow-up of audit recommendations by
public sector auditors as an issue of primary impact and importance to both the auditor
and the auditee, be it at a national as well as at a European level. It gathered various Senior
Oicials from the Maltese government and the NAO as well as Leo Brincat, ECA Member, and
Martin Weber, Director in the ECA Directorate of the Presidency.
The opening address by Charles Deguara, Auditor General of the NAO, highlighted the
importance of monitoring and follow-up of implementing audit recommendations as a basis
for maintaining a value-adding role as public sector auditors.
Leo Brincat explained how the ECA’s work at a European level is relevant to all Member
States, even when our reports' conclusions and recommendations are not country-speciic.
He stated that ‘the ECA is working actively in engaging with Member States, particularly
through the enhancement of its communication strategy.’ In his speech, Leo Brincat
encouraged national government representatives to consider our work, most notably
our special reports, as potential models for best practice in designing policy objectives.
To stimulate this, the NAO is collaborating very actively with the ECA and had taken the
initiative of distributing ECA Special Reports by topic, to the respective line ministries.
Focus on accountability to rebuild trust
Making reference to the irst keynote speech by President Klaus-Heiner Lehne, Leo Brincat
emphasized the need for rebuilding the trust of the European citizens. Such focus is pivotal
to the work of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in dealing with changing priorities that
focus more and more on attaining results.
Martin Weber addressed the Seminar with a presentation on ’Maximising our Contribution
to Member States’ Public Accountability.’ He explained the fundamental role of the ECA in
promoting accountability as one of its core values in its Mission Statement for the 2018-
2020 Strategy. He stated that although the ECA makes recommendations to Member States,
there are still a number of issues on coverage, feedback, and follow-up that can be better
addressed at a national level through the supervision of national parliaments and SAIs.
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Reaching out : ECA contribution to Maltese NAO conference on
accountability
continued
47
Follow-up across the Maltese public service
Principal Permanent Secretary, Mario Cutajar, made reference to the Governance reports
issued by his Oice, analysing the status of implementation of recommendations issued
by the NAO in working to maintain accountability and transparency across the Maltese
public service.
Deputy Auditor General, Noel Camilleri, gave an overview of the new initiative taken
up by the NAO of issuing a Follow-Up Report on a number of inancial, compliance and
performance audits during the past years. Audits selected for follow-up ranging from 2010
to 2015 by the NAO, resulted in 50% of NAO audit recommendations being implemented,
32% partially implemented and the remaining 18% unaddressed.
Panel - Marin Weber, Leo Brincat, Noel Camilleri, Speaker: Charles Deguara.
Paricipants – NAO and Government representaives
Neil Kerr, Leo Brincat, Marin Weber, Annete Farrugia, Brian
Vella, Charles Deguara (let to right)
The Seminar was attended by the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Permanent
Secretaries and Senior Oicials across the public service, staf from the National Audit
Oice as well as the Internal Audit and Investigations Department. Around the seminar
bilateral meetings were also held between the NAO and the ECA as well as the Internal
Audit and Investigations Department.
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Audit is also making good use
of common sense
48
Interview with
Carmen Jimenez
An important group having a lot of knowledge
about the ECA, particularly about its past 40 years,
are the ECA pensioner. Only recently retired as
senior auditor Carmen Jimenez is still totally in sync
with developments at the ECA but also willing to
look at its broader horizon over the last decades.
Happy career path
Before starting at the ECA, Carmen worked in Madrid for the Ministry of Finance in Madrid,
mainly as inancial auditor and evaluating also systems. Her main auditees were big state
owned companies and Carmen was involved in delivering the annual audit opinion on
their accounts. Carmen recalls that this required a lot of travelling throughout the country.
Carmen retired in 2017 after having worked for the ECA almost 25 years. She started
in 1992 at the Social Fund unit, which at the time also included policy areas like media
and culture. After six years there Carmen started working as assistant to a director. Her
main motivation to make this switch was family reasons:’ I wanted to travel less having
two small children. But I changed back fully to audit already after two years since that is
what I preferred to do.’ In 1998 Carmen started as compliance and performance auditor in
Chamber I. Doing both jobs consecutively was not uncommon in those days. She worked
on various topics, like an audit on milk quota. In 2007 she went to Chamber II where
she audited for ten years on performance topics. Carmen’s academic background is in
macroeconomics and monetary policies.
In hindsight Carmen is very happy with how her career developed: ‘I really liked the
variety of the audit work, both in compliance audits and performance audits.’ Carmen was
until the last day very busy with an audit on public private partnerships: ‘In the end I had
to hurry to clear out my oice, going from one day to the other from intensive work to
retirement.’
Volunteering almost full time in an NGO
Although she always enjoyed working she underlines that she does not regret to be
retired: ’I am very happy to be retired, having the time to do the things I would like to.
My husband is still working and It certainly does not feel like a holiday or so.’ A few years
before she retired she started working half time: ‘It gave me a lot more time, also to
focus on the things I wanted to do. And it helps you to change towards a new situation.’
While working half time Carmen has also taken up to do voluntary work. Carmen is
very committed to the work she does for an NGO and increased the time she puts into
that, becoming sometimes almost a full working week. The NGO she works for, called
Asoziacion Manos Abierias (AMA), aims to facilitate the integration of workers arriving
in Luxembourg, particularly workers in construction and lower paid jobs. ’I meet a lot of
people,’ she smiles. Now she is also preparing for the St Jacques de compostelle walk,
trying to cover 260 km, starting within a few weeks.
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Interview with Carmen Jimenez
continued
49
Using common sense
When looking back at her work at the ECA Carmen emphasises how much she liked
working in teams with many diferent backgrounds, and particularly with younger people:
‘They keep you in contact with the world and with new things.’ She also very much
liked working in compliance audit in cohesion, no boring job in her view: ‘This requires
good professional judgement, the weighting of diverse elements and most often using
common sense!’ Carmen laughs, saying: ‘On questions on whether audit is diicult I always
replied that a very important ingredient for doing an audit is making good use of your
common sense.’
Carmen brings up another element she always liked in her audit work: ‘As auditor you can
really dive into a topic. Auditing gives you often interesting insights, for example on water
distribution issues of decontamination of industrial sites, areas I did not know anything
about. It is a window that allows an auditor to enter into subjects you could have not
imagined before staring an audit. It is an opportunity for auditors to get into new things.
And meeting interesting people on the spot, both people that take important decision,
and the technicians.’ For Carmen there comes another element into play: ‘Through our
audits we bring reasonable decision-making into the picture, decisions based on facts and
which makes sense, instead of authorities mainly reacting to speciic demands, to certain
pressures for action.’
Keeping up the esprit d’equipe
When Carmen started in the ECA it had less than 400 people: ‘There was perhaps more
a family feeling. But for me the relationship with the audit teams was most important
and I think that working together for achieving an objective is very important and it
creates an ’esprit d’equipe’. She also believes that it will remain important to uphold clear
responsibilities for auditor’s performance but also underperformance, if that happens. She
explains further: ‘It is important that if people do not feel okay in their work it is signalled
in time because otherwise they will become less efective in delivering a good job. And
delivering output remains in the end a managerial responsibility.’
To remain relevant for the future Carmen believes it will be important to work closely
with the European Parliament to pick up the audit topics that are close to the European
citizens. She is very pertinent about one other aspect relating to relevance: ‘The ECA
should also select projects and programmes which are in their early phases of planning
and implementation so that audit indings can still have an impact during the later
implementation phase. In our audits we ind that many problems originate from poor
or unrealistic planning.’ Carmen inds that the ECA can have more impact if it provides
comments on feasibility of plans of big investment projects already decided upon, so
that they can go back to the drawing board if necessary. She refers to the ECA audit on
regional airports, where the conclusion was that too many airports inanced with EU
money are empty or almost empty. ‘If the ECA could come with these remarks earlier in
the planning and implementation process then action could be taken to stop or improve
these projects in time.’
Carmen concludes with a smile that, being outside the ECA now, she does not want to
appear to be too critical on the ECA, on the contrary: ‘I was very happy in the ECA, have
many good memories and learned many things. Sometimes people can become a bit
sceptical with age. That makes it even more important that young people keep on coming
to work for the ECA, people with ideals and enthusiasm. Without that no organisation can
function well.’
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Career mobility between EU institutions as a
chance for learning
50
Interview with
Christoph Nerlich
In the 11 years that Christoph Nerlich has worked
now in EU institutions he has covered already
three of them: the ECA, the European Parliament
and the Commission. And he has remained
enthusiastic about the EU ever since he joined the
ECA in 2006.
Entering into EU public service
Christoph joined the ECA in January 2006, coming from PwC in Berlin. When studying
business administration Christoph focused on auditing, accounting and tax law, not an
unusual combination in Germany,’ he says. His aim and expectation was not to work in
public service in Germany. However, when he became aware of a competition in the EU
related to audit Christoph decided to give it a try, not knowing that he had to learn by heart
also the 250 questions on Europe: ‘I only barely passed that part but fortunately managed to
do the rest more convincingly.’
In early 2016, Christoph started in the called ‘Banking, Lending and Borrowing’ unit in the
ECA, with high expectations and ready for surprises. He worked mostly in the Statement
of Assurance (SoA) area, including as a team leader for a speciic appraisal for the related
policy area. In 2008 Christoph joined the ECA directorate responsible for coordinating the
SoA work, being responsible for methodology development and rural development work.
He worked on national management declarations and its possible use for the SoA and how
to use the tolerable risk of error concept presented by the Commission. ‘I very much liked
the opportunity to get a wide perspective on the SoA, an important aspect of the ECA work,’
recalls Christoph.
Fall of the Wall
Having grown up in Berlin the East/West separation and the Wall coming down was
important in his development: ‘I attribute the fall of the Wall also to the integration of
Europe, which remains a big peace project in itself. This is very much engrained in my
thoughts and the essential existence of the EU was a big driver to join the EU civil service to
contribute to the EU project. And with no regrets whatsoever. Diiculties arise from time to
time but the essential ‘business model’ for Europe still remains: securing peace in Europe.’
For Christoph the ECA was a good start in the public service, also because it exposed him
immediately to diferent levels in the European public realm, both in Member States and
in the Commission’s services. This continued in his consecutive job positions. This variety
makes it interesting for Christoph, giving opportunities to learn quickly, which is a big driver
for him in his work.
Moving ‘back’ to the city
Christoph decided to change small town Luxembourg for big town Brussels when an
opportunity arose in the secretariat of the Budgetary Control Committee (CONT), the ECA’s
main interlocutor in the European Parliament. From 2011 he worked there on the ongoing
discharge. Looking back Christoph feels that his ECA experience, including audit on the spot
experience and how the Commission works, gave him a big advantage when advising MEPs.
According to Christoph ‘it was again an expansion of my horizon because it was about what
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Interview with Christoph Nerlich
continued
51
actually to do with the information presented by the ECA and how to translate this politically
in something useful.’
For Christoph also this period was one with ‘a steep learning curve’, as he put it. However,
when asked by the newly appointed Director-General of the Commission’s Internal Audit
Service (IAS) to join him as his assistant Christoph decided to go back to audit in October
2012. Christoph became, as he says put it, ‘involved in everything that went on in the DG,
getting to know the Commission from the inside and working on the centralisation of
internal audit in the Commission.’ This also meant almost a doubling in size of the IAS with,
according to Christoph, intensive recruiting and increasing reporting output. He successfully
applied for one of the vacant head of unit posts, a job he started In April 2016. He then
became responsible for the internal audit of the Commission’s central services, inter alia the
Secretariat-General, DGs BUDG and HR, and the so-called ‘administrative expenses,’ but also
for cross-cutting audits like on better regulation and one on cost-efectiveness of controls.
The combination makes it all the more interesting and busy for Christoph, meeting with very
diverse DGs, running four to ive audits in parallel.
Adding value through recommendations
When asked about the particularities in audits of the IAS Christoph says: ‘At the IAS, we are
not yet satisied if we have a inding. We want to look further how to improve the internal
control systems. This is also due to the speciic role the IAS has.’ Christoph referred to the
three lines of defence model with the IAS being really the third line of defence of the
Commission, requiring objectivity and independence to do its work. He adds that the ECA
has a diferent and unique role, with a very wide mandate and remit..
Mobility as a great feature of the EU public service
Changing to new jobs and new organisations meant for Christoph learning something new.
Christoph says: ‘Without such a chance for mobility, without such a chance for learning, I
would not have been able to work in the public sector.’ He still has frequent contacts with
former colleagues at the ECA, also workwise to ensure coordination on audit programmes,
etc. While happy where he is now, for his future in Brussels Christoph does not exclude to
move out of audit again because according to Christoph ‘With every engagement you learn
something new. Now I audit and manage an audit team but at some point I might rather
work in a whole diferent subject area, being more directly involved in implementing things.’
This being said Christoph is very happy where he is, with some interesting years ahead for
him in the IAS.
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Young brains exploring opportunities in the
EU public service
52
Interview with
Victoria Gilson
Each year, the ECA has a substantial number of interns
in its organisation, about 25 at the same time. They are
mostly young graduates or almost graduates seeking to
ind out what it is like to work in an EU institution and
the ECA in particular. This is certainly the goal of Victoria
Gilson who arrived at the ECA in September 2017 for a
ive month internship, starting in the private oice of
Phil Wynn Owen, ECA Member. Victoria is bursting with
positive energy to make the best of it.
Internships as career guidance
Victoria has a bachelors degree in European Studies from the University of Southampton
in the UK, which included an Erasmus exchange year in Grenoble in France. After turning
down a job ofer from Amazon in London, Victoria decided to follow her heart instead
of her wallet. She returned to France for a Masters degree in European Law, in Lyon.
Victoria got a lot out of that year in France: ‘It really pushed my boundaries, becoming
more self-disciplined, and it was a big lesson in how to cope well with challenges.’ At the
end, she decided she wanted some practical experience: ‘Every year during my studies,
I did an internship to ind out what I would like work-wise. This year I decided to apply
for this ive month internship with the European Commission, the so-called Blue Book
EU trainee programme. During the application process, I started in May 2017 with a six
week internship at the European Commission representation in Soia, which ofered many
interesting things to do. Right after that, I did an internship in a law irm specialised in
crime, family and immigration law.
Victoria decided also to look for other EU internship options and found the ECA internship
programme. Victoria: ‘What drew my particular attention were the sustainability issues
as presented by the ECA. I consider myself to be very green and felt attracted to the
prospect of auditing EU Member States on their green ticket and how EU directives are
implemented.’ After two months, Victoria was contacted by the ECA for an interview.
Victoria did not apply to be in a private oice and came in through the general application
process. To her pleasant surprise she was allocated to the dean’s private oice in Chamber I
responsible for auditing the sustainable use of natural resources.
Loads of responsibilities!
Victoria’s work in the private oice until now has been very diverse with, as she puts it,
‘loads of responsibilities! My mentor in the oice is Katharina Bryan and she gives great
guidance and is keen that I learn things during my internship. I have been to several
meetings and will also join a visit to auditees in November, about which I am very excited.’
Victoria’s irst task was to help organise a stakeholders meeting for the recently published
ECA landscape review on EU Action on Energy and Climate Change. For Victoria, the
concept of a stakeholders meeting is new and a welcome initiative because experts
working in the area can give their perspective on the landscape review. She is looking
forward to helping organise the conference on the same landscape review, scheduled for
17 October in Brussels.
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Interview with Victoria Gilson
continued
53
The internship network as one of the many pros of the ECA internship programme
For Victoria, the more she puts into her internship, the more she will get out of it: ‘I have
been brought up to be very active and ask for work.’ Victoria is pleased that the interns
in the ECA have good contact with each other, having their own WhatsApp group and
seeing each other for a cofee, lunch, during the weekend and usually meeting on Friday
evening for a drink.
To Victoria, the ECA’s work comes across as a lot more rigorous than that of many
organisations she has worked for: ‘There is a lot of commitment from the people to
implement audits in a correct and professional manner. What I particularly like, besides
the thoroughness and the structure in the ECA, are… the people. It is crucial that you like
the people you work with because you spend all day with your colleagues. I like many
people in the ECA: my colleagues, the other trainees, the people working in the ECA
cafeteria, in security. Being friendly to people often means receiving friendliness back. It
is simply nice to be nice.’ As for the ECA buildings and their rooms she adds: ‘they are well
equipped and I can ind many things in the library as well as the BibliothECA. I also really
like how you can read foreign newspapers in the K3 cafeteria.’
Motivated for an EU career
Victoria is also involved in working on an audit on lood prevention and an audit on
desertiication. She is familiarising herself with the audit questions, approach, the speciic
auditees and diving into the background material. Victoria is now working on a brieing on
the relationship between climate migration and climate change. She likes the dynamics of
working in a private oice.
Victoria particularly likes that the ECA examines whether EU policies and programmes are
implemented efectively, eiciently and economically. She inds this quite a responsibility
and, as she puts it ‘is a good feeling to be part of the ECA as guardians of EU inances.’
Having some experience now with internships in EU institutions, Victoria is thinking even
more of entering an EPSO recruitment competition.
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E
FOCUS
A
Publications in the previous month
54
Special report
N° 12/2017
Implementing the Drinking Water Directive: water quality and
access to it improved in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, but
investment needs remain substantial
This report examines whether EU actions improved the quality of drinking water in
Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania as required by the 1998 Drinking Water Directive.
Overall, we conclude that the situation has improved signiicantly. Nevertheless, there
are still areas where citizens are supplied with water from the public supply network
that is not fully in compliance with EU standards.
Moreover, signiicant further national public and private funding will be needed to
ensure access to good quality water to all citizens in these Member States and to ensure
that EU funded investments in water facilities can be adequately maintained.
Among other things, we recommend that several remaining issues are addressed in the
context of the current revision of the Drinking Water Directive and that the sustainability
of water infrastructure is ensured while safeguarding the afordability of the service.
Click here for our full Special Report
Published on
12 September2017
Audit Brief
Auditors publish brieing on EU plans for broadband
The European Court of Auditors is currently examining whether the European
Commission and the Member States are on-track to achieve the Europe 2020 broadband
objectives.
The 2010 Digital Agenda for Europe envisaged bringing basic broadband to all
Europeans by 2013 and ensuring fast broadband coverage for all Europeans by 2020, as
well as having over 50% of households subscribe to ultra-fast broadband by 2020.
Studies by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank estimate
that up to €270 billion will be required to achieve the 2020 broadband targets.
EU broadband infrastructure inancing accounts for over €14 billion in the current
programme period.
Click here for our Audit Brief
Published on
14 September 2017
Landscape
Review
EU action on energy and climate change
Efective action on energy is essential to tackle climate change, according to a
new landscape review of EU Action on Energy and Climate Change published by
the European Court of Auditors. Energy production and use account for 79% of EU
greenhouse gas emissions, say the auditors. Even if eforts to cut greenhouse gas
emissions are successful, adapting to changes in the climate is necessary. By the end of
the century, Europe’s climate will be signiicantly diferent even under the temperature
increase of no more than 2°C envisaged by the 2015 Paris agreement.
The landscape review provides an overview of EU action; summarises key audit work
by the European Court of Auditors and EU national audit institutions; and identiies the
main challenges, in order to inform both the legislative debate and future audit work.
lick here for our full Landscape Review
Published on
19 September2017
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E
FOCUS
A
Publications in the previous month
55
Audit Brief
Air quality in the EU
The European Court of Auditors is currently examining the efectiveness of EU action to
reduce the health risks from air pollution.
Recent studies have found that air pollution is the main environmental cause of
premature death among EU citizens: ine particulate matter was considered responsible
for an estimated 436 000 premature deaths in the EU in 2013, nitrogen dioxide for 68
000 and ground-level ozone for a further 16 000. Air pollution tends to be more severe
in cities than in the countryside.
The EU has established a legislative framework to reduce air pollution. The Ambient Air
Quality Directive lays down common measurement techniques, criteria for assessing
ambient air quality and binding limit values for the atmospheric concentration of
the main air pollutants. The EU also co-inances a number of measures to improve air
quality, mostly through the European Structural and Investment funds, EU research
programmes and the LIFE programme. Our audit is considering whether these actions
have been efective in reducing the health risks from air pollution.
Click here for our Audit Brief
Published on
21 September2017
Special report
N° 14/2017
Performance review of case management at the Court of Justice
of the European Union
In this performance review, we assessed the CJEU’s case management processes, in
particular whether the procedures in place promoted the eicient handling of cases
lodged and whether their timely resolution could be enhanced.
In recent years the CJEU has increased its focus on timeliness of case management and
progress has been made to reduce the signiicant backlog of cases that had built up at
the General Court by the end of 2016.
Our review concluded that the CJEU could further enhance these positive results by
considering a move towards more active individual case management, using tailored
time-frames and taking account of the human resources employed, and by taking
certain other steps to enhance management systems.
Click here for our full Special Report
Published on
26 September2017
Annual Report
2016
2016 Annual Report
There has been a sustained improvement in the estimated level of error in payments from
the EU budget. About half of EU spending audited in 2016 was below the 2% threshold
for material level of error. As a result, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) has issued a
qualiied opinion on 2016 payments, rather than an adverse one. This is the irst qualiied
opinion since the ECA began to provide an annual statement of assurance in 1994. In
addition, the ECA has given a clean opinion on the 2016 EU accounts’ reliability, as has
been the case every year since 2007. Revenue in 2016 was free from material error.
Click here for our full Annual Report
Published on
28 September 2017
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ISSN 1831-449X
EDITION HIGHLIGHTS
05
07
10
The ECA’s 40th anniversary: activities to
commemorate and contribute further!
'Our staf are our main asset…'
Interview with Ildiko Gall-Pelcz, ECA Member
since 1 September 2017
Plus interviews with (former) ECA staf members
at the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the
ECA
Cover:
European Court of Auditors' staf
QJ-AD-17-009-2A-N