Dear Ms Katz-Duchowski,

Thank you for contacting again the European Court of Auditors (ECA).

We acknowledge receipt of your message of 10 June 2023. Your request is
currently under treatment and we will provide you with a reply in due
course.

Kind regards

ECA-INFO team

      ECA-INFO

Information Desk
12, rue Alcide De Gasperi - L-1615 Luxembourg
[1]eca.europa.eu

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Dear Ms Katz-Duchowski,

Thank you for contacting the European Court of Auditors (ECA).

Your request has been treated according to the rules on public access to
ECA documents, which are set out in [1]Decision No 12/2005 of the Court of
Auditors regarding public access to Court documents (as amended by ECA
Decision No 14/2009, consolidated version published in OJ C 67/1 of
20.03.2009) (altogether, "the Court's Decision").

By your request of 10 June 2023 you asked access to documents containing
the following information: “ any audit report […] having in scope the
abidance and implementation of accounting rules incumbent on EU
institution and agencies based from Article 87 (from REGULATION (EU,
Euratom) 2018/1046) between 2013 and 2023”.

Each year as part of the audit work on the financial statements of the EU,
which we include in our Annual Report, we audit assets (like tangible /
intangible / stocks) held by the institutions and other bodies. Our audit
work can include examination of documentation proving ownership, policies
to safeguard assets, stocktaking practices, analytical review and
depreciation calculations. We have not reported significant observations
concerning the financial statements in the time period you refer to.
However in paragraph 9.9 of our [2]Annual Report for 2021, we drew
attention to problems concerning a procurement procedure used by the
European Parliament to acquire a building. Furthermore, our [3]Special
Report 34/2018 examined office accommodation in EU institutions.

Moreover, we would also like to inform you that our financial audits of
individual EU agencies include similar work on the financial statements of
each agency to that described above for the EU institutions. In relation
to Article 87 of the Financial Regulation, we drew attention to a lack of
sufficient insurance cover for fixed assets in paragraph 13 of the [4]2014
Specific Annual Report for the European GNSS Agency (now superseded by
European Union Agency for the Space Programme or “EUSPA”). In another
[5]case (related to the European Union Agency for Operational Management
of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice or
“eu-LISA”), also in relation to the 2014 financial year, we emphasised in
paragraph 10 the need for more reliable and complete data for the
valuation of core information systems, including the costs of hardware,
off-the-shelf software and software development. More recently, in
paragraph 3.18.9 of our consolidated [6]Annual Report for 2021, we
reported on one case of absence of complete and updated inventories,
related to the European Labour Authority or “ELA”. However, none of these
observations called into question the overall clean audit opinions on the
financial statements of those entities.

However, with regard to the “audit documentation having in scope the
abidance and implementation of accounting rules incumbent on EU
institution and agencies based from Article 87 (from REGULATION (EU,
Euratom) 2018/1046) between 2013 and 2023”, we would like indicate that,
under Article 4.2 of the Court’s Decision, the ECA “may also refuse access
to documents used in the preparation of those observations.”

These exchanges and the documents leading to the formal adoption of a
report or opinion by the ECA, including draft of the report and working
documents (ECA’s internal analysis of the documents received from the
auditee, or of the auditee’s replies), are preparatory in nature and, as
such, are comparable to the deliberative process at the Court of Justice
and the General Court, which is deemed confidential.

Being a collegial body, the ECA is only legally bound by documents that
are formally adopted by its College of Members (e.g. reports and
opinions).

Furthermore, the underlying documents received from third parties and the
replies of the auditee are documents of which the ECA is not the author.
Pursuant to Article 4.5 of its Decision no 12-2005, "if the application
concerns a document held by the Court but of which the Court is not the
author, the Court shall confirm receipt of the application and supply the
name of the person, institution or body to whom the application must be
addressed". Therefore, you may consider addressing your request to the
respective EU institutions and agencies referred to in the ECA reports
mentioned above.

This notwithstanding, in application of Article 4.8 of the ECA’s Decision
on access to documents, the ECA may decide to allow access to a document
where there is an overriding public interest in its disclosure. We note
that, contrary to case-law* (applicable by analogy in this case), you have
not adduced any proof as to how disclosing the requested documents to you
would serve the public interest.

Please be informed that, under Article 7 of Decision 12/2005, you can ask
the ECA to reconsider its position within 15 working days of receiving
this reply. Your request for reconsideration should be submitted to the
President of the ECA.

Kind regards

ECA-INFO team

*“in so far as concerns the last clause of Article 4(2) of the regulation
[(EC) No 1049/2001], it is, by contrast, for the party alleging an
overriding public interest, within the meaning of that clause, to prove
that interest.” (Judgment of 25 September 2014, Spirlea/Commission
([7]T-669/11), paragraph 97)

      ECA-INFO

Information Desk
12, rue Alcide De Gasperi - L-1615 Luxembourg
[8]eca.europa.eu

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