Who are our European partners, and how do we work together?

The supreme audit institutions of the EU and the European Court of Auditors work together in the Contact Committee. The Contact Committee is an assembly of the presidents of the supreme audit institutions of the 27 member states and the European Court of Auditors. It is a forum for sharing knowledge and addressing EU matters that are of common interest. The Contact Committee meets once a year. 

The Contact Committee publishes reports on its website in the event of joint audits by Committee members. It also publishes other communications. Recent publications include:

• On 17 May, the Contact Committee issued a statement in support of the independence of the Audit Office of the Republic of Cyprus.
• On 22 July 2021, the Contact Committee published a report on the audits carried out by 11 EU supreme audit institutions of their governments’ response to COVID-19.
• Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Contact Committee published a letter calling on INTOSAI members (all supreme audit institutions worldwide) to stand up for peace and solidarity with Ukraine.
• On 22 November 2023 the Contact Committee published a statement on the constitutional role, mandate and independence of Poland’s supreme audit institution.

Various working groups and networks have been set up within the Contact Committee for discussing specific themes.

More information:

• Contact Committee 
• Active Working groups - Contact Committee working groups and networks 
• EU Contact Committee statement in support of the constitutional role, mandate and independence of the Audit Office of the Republic of Cyprus, 17 May 2021
• Response to COVID-19 (PDF) - Audit compendium Contact Committee on Response of EU governments to COVID-19 (July 2021)
• Call by Contact Committee on the members of INTOSAI to stand up for peace and solidarity for Ukraine (PDF) (March 2022) 
• Supreme Audit Institutions express concerns regarding developments in Poland - Statement in support of the constitutional role, mandate and independence of the Audit Office of Poland (November 2023) 

The Contact Committee has several working groups and networks that share knowledge and expertise on specific themes, and sometimes perform joint (i.e. cross-border) audits. Such audits are doubly effective, not only because they facilitate comparison between member states, but also because the audit results have more authority, especially if they are intended to have an impact in Brussels. The Netherlands Court of Audit is currently a member of one working group and one network. It also participates in more informal networks.

Fiscal Policy Network

In the wake of the financial crisis, the supreme audit institutions acknowledged the growing importance of fiscal policy supervision. In 2017, 6 members of this network of supreme audit institutions performed a joint audit of national governments’ response to fiscal policy recommendations of the European Commission, OECD and IMF. We discussed the audit report in a letter we sent to the Dutch House of Representatives on EU issues. On 20 October 2022, the supreme audit institutions of Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden published a joint report on their countries’ medium-term budgetary frameworks.

Working group on value-added tax

The main remit of this working group, which conducts regular investigations into VAT, is to combat VAT fraud (i.e. the non-payment of VAT). We published an audit report on VAT on cross-border digital services in 2018. The German and Belgian supreme audit institutions and the European Court of Auditors also published reports on this subject in 2019. 
Besides cooperation in formal CC working groups and networks, there is also informal cooperation and knowledge-sharing, for instance on audits of the Recovery and Resilience Facility by supreme audit institutions. 

Court of Audit’s participation in informal networks

As well as cooperating in formal working groups and networks, the Contact Committee is also a platform through which representatives of EU supreme audit institutions regularly meet informally to share knowledge. Subjects covered in these informal discussions include the supreme audit institutions’ audit of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (the corona recovery fund set up by the EU in 2020) and, since 2023, discussions on energy and the energy transition.

More information:

• Underlying Risks to Sustainable Public Finances (PDF) - Parallel audit (24-10-2017) 
• EU-gerelateerde aandachtspunten ontwerpbegroting 2018 - Letter of Netherlands Court of Audit to Parliament regarding EU-related issues  (23-11-2017) (Dutch only)
• Joint report on the parallel audit on the medium term budgetary frameworks (PDF) (October 2020)
• VAT on Cross-Border Digital Services, Netherlands Court of Audit report (28-11-2018) 
• Covid-19: General information - Contact Committee – Covid-19 audit compendium

Several years ago, the Netherlands Court of Audit decided to organise an annual seminar on financial accounting in the public sector, which evolved into an informal knowledge-sharing network. As the national governments of the EU member states apply different fiscal and accounting policies, it is difficult to compare member states with each other and to understand the situation in individual member states. The European Commission is working on common accounting standards for fiscal and financial reporting, referred to as European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS).

The focus during the network’s most recent meeting, in June 2023, shifted towards sustainability reporting.

More information:

• Progress report on EPSAS, European Commission
• EPSAS Progress Report 2019 (PDF) (05-06-2019)

The EU supreme audit institutions are also members of the European Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (EUROSAI). This is a Europe-wide group currently consisting of 51 supreme audit organisations and which, unlike the Contract Committee, discusses general, non-EU related issues.

EUROSAI is one of the 7 regional INTOSAI (International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions) groups.

More information:

• International cooperation, Netherlands Court of Audit
• About EUROSAI
• INTOSAI - International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions