EUROSAI Secretariat

EUROSAI was established in Madrid in 1990, in order to promote relations among its members in the field of public audit; responding to the need for collaboration among External Control Institutions of the European region; contribute to bringing together the various systems, procedures and methods of public audit; and enrich the work itself through better exchange of experiences.

Its basic principles are equality of all members, the right to their free incorporation and separation, as well as the respect for the respective legal system.

EUROSAI membership stands at 51 members.

The official languages are English, French, German, Russian and Spanish.

EUROSAI Organisation

The bodies of EUROSAI are the Congress, the Governing Board (GB) and the Secretariat.

The Congress is composed of all the Presidents/General Auditors of the member institutions. It meets every three years as the supreme authority, in order to establish the guidelines to be followed to achieve the objectives of the Organisation. As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the XI EUROSAI Congress, initially scheduled to be held in Prague in June 2020, had to be postponed and was finally virtually held on 14 April 2021 under the organisation of the SAI of the Czech Republic, which assumed the Presidency of the Organisation for the period 2021-2024.

Photo: Virtual meeting of the XI EUROSAI Congress (April 14^th, 2021)

The Governing Board is composed of eight members (among them, the Spanish Court of Audit, as EUROSAI Secretariat) and four observers. It is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Statutes; adopting the necessary decisions for the functioning of the Organisation in accordance with the guidelines of the Congress; approving the draft budget and submitting it to the Congress; and establishing the standards for the preparation and presentation of the accounts by the Secretariat and their audit by the auditors.

Photo: Meeting of the EUROSAI Governing Board
(Prague, Czech Republic, November 16^th, 2021)

EUROSAI has a Strategic Plan for the period 2017-2024, approved at the X EUROSAI Congress (Istanbul, Turkey, 2017) and based on two strategic goals:

Strategic Goal 1: Professional Cooperation.

Strategic Goal 2: Institutional Capacity Development.

The Strategic Plan also places special emphasis on improving EUROSAI Governance and Modus Operandi, defining the guiding principles and some key improvements in those areas. In order to implement these enhancements, the EUROSAI Strategic Plan (ESP) foresees the establishment of Governance portfolios, to be assumed by individual Governing Board (GB) members:

Portfolio on overall governance and culture.
Portfolio on communication.
Portfolio on relations with non-SAI stakeholders.
Portfolio on relations with other INTOSAI and its Regional Organisations.
Portfolio on emerging issues and forward thinking.

In addition, EUROSAI has the following Working Groups, Task Forces and Networks:

Working Group on "Information Technologies", chaired by the SAI of Estonia.
Working Group on "Environmental Auditing", chaired by the SAI of Poland.
Working Group on the "Audit of Funds Allocated to Disasters and Catastrophes", chaired by the SAI of Ukraine.
Task Force on "Municipality Audit", chaired by the SAI of Lithuania.
EUROSAI “Network for Ethics” chaired by the SAI of Croatia with the support of the SAI of Portugal (vice-presidency), which continues the work of the Task Force on "Audit and Ethics".

Photo: Virtual Meeting of the EUROSAI Strategic Goal 2
(October 1^st, 2021)

The Spanish Court of Audit is a member of the "Information Technology" and "Environmental Auditing" Working Groups, and of the Task Force on "Municipality Audit" and the EUROSAI “Network for ethics”. Besides, it leads the “Portfolio on Relations with INTOSAI and its Regional Organisations” and the “Portfolio on communication”, as well as the Project Groups created for the “review of the EUROSAI Regulations” and for the “Relaunch of EUROSAI’s Website”, and forms part of that one constituted to “draft the General Procedures for implementing the Strategic Plan”, in accordance with the new Governance Framework of EUROSAI. Within the framework of the work carried out by the Working Group on Environmental Auditing, it is worth mentioning the participation of the Spanish Court of Audit in the "International Cooperative Audit on Air Quality in Europe", an initiative that brought together a total of 16 European SAIs, including the European Court of Auditors.

The Spanish Court of Audit also participates in the activities organised by the Project Group “Audit in response to the COVID-19 pandemic” which, in April 2021, published a report on its progress after one year of activity, as well as in that of the “Follow-up of the implementation of audit recommendations”. The latter concluded its work in 2020 with the publication of a good practice guide in this area, which was drawn up on the basis of the findings of a survey on the various systems for monitoring the implementation of audit recommendations used by the various EUROSAI members.

The Court of Audit: EUROSAI’s permanent Secretariat

The EUROSAI Secretariat, is permanently based at the Spanish Court of Audit, where it has its headquarters according to the Statutes of the Organisation. In this way, the Spanish Court of Audit is responsible for the administrative and budgetary management of the Organisation, as well as for providing the facilities and staff required for its operation.

The Secretariat keeps EUROSAI members in contact and promotes relations between them in the periods between Congresses. It is responsible for the preparation of a program of proposals that is submitted to the governing bodies, at the request of the members. The Secretariat coordinates the publication of EUROSAI Magazine and it hosts the EUROSAI website.

The main responsibilities of the Secretariat are:

To prepare the sessions of the Governing Board.
To execute the decisions adopted by the Congress and the Governing Board.
To prepare the draft budget of EUROSAI and to submit it to the Governing Board.
To present the financial statements and the annual financial report to the Governing Board.
To implement the budget and keep the accounts and archives of EUROSAI.
To perform the duties assigned to it by the Congress or the Governing Board.

The Spanish Court of Audit manages the EUROSAI Budget, which is essentially based on the contributions paid by its members, that are set by applying the rates foreseen for the United Nations. The EUROSAI budget 2022-2024, amounts to 94,179.00 euros per year.

On the other hand, in its capacity as General Secretariat of one of the INTOSAI Regional Organisations, the SAI of Spain is member of the Supervisory Committee on Emerging Issues (and its COVID Group of Experts), of the Capacity Building Committee, of the INTOSAI-Donor Cooperation Steering Committee, of the Regional Forum for Capacity Development, of the INTOSAI-Regions Coordination Platform and the round table for Regions, of the Task Force on the INTOSAI Strategic Plan 2023-2028, and is an associate editor of the Editorial Board of the INTOSAI Journal. It also participates in the annual and triennial meetings of the INTOSAI Governing Board and Congress, respectively.

International cooperation of EUROSAI

EUROSAI has assumed a firm commitment of cooperation with the INTOSAI Regional Organisations, basically materialised in the joint conferences between the members of these Organisations, which began to be held with OLACEFS in 2000, with ARABOSAI in 2006, and with ASOSAI in 2010. In 2014, EUROSAI signed a Memorandum of Understanding with AFROSAI, which is being developed through a framework of professional cooperation between both organisations.

In the promotion of this inter-regional cooperation, the Spanish Court of Audit plays a key role by leading the portfolio of “Relations with INTOSAI and its Regional Organisations”.

On the other hand, EUROSAI also maintains a fluid collaboration with other INTOSAI bodies, such as the General Secretariat (held by the SAI of Austria) and the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI), the INTOSAI structure for the promotion of capacity building.