The 19^th of June of 2014, during the IX EUROSAI Congress held in The Hague (The Netherlands), EUROSAI and the ECIIA renewed the Cooperation Agreement signed in Rome the 7^th of March of 2011

This Agreement is aimed at creating a collaboration process that will enable both organisations’ mutual benefiting from their works, and promote knowledge sharing.

The ECIIA assists and represents the internal audit profession in both private and public sectors throughout Europe, following the global objective of providing dynamic leadership for the profession of internal auditing.

The Agreement EUROSAI-ECIIA was signed with a specific focus on practical implementation of their achievements on the European level, in the framework of the wider context offered by the cooperation between the INTOSAI Professional Standards Committee and the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), under a formal Memorandum of Understanding signed the 23^rd / 25^th of April of 2014 (renewing the agreement of November 2010), mutually supporting each other’s goals and objectives.

The purpose of the cooperation process EUROSAI-ECIIA covers facilitating the exchange of information, developing common understanding in relation to public sector accountability and auditing, sharing experiences in implementing the existing professional practices’ framework and standards, and mutual consultations on issues of common interest. In order to promote and put cooperation into practice, EUROSAI and the ECIIA agreed to develop a common platform.

Practical cooperation established with ECIIA has been notably focused on the implementation of INTOSAI GOV. In this regard, a EUROSAI-ECIIA joint paper on the implementation of INTOSAI GOV 9150 and IIA 2050 was presented as a non-exhaustive intermediate document to the IX EUROSAI Congress. The EUROSAI survey results in the joint paper have been updated since then.

A joint comparative document that shows the comparison of structures and activities of INTOSAI and the Institute of Internal Auditors and of EUROSAI and ECIIA has also been drafted by the EUROSAI-ECIIA Cooperation Committee.

On 11 May 2017 EUROSAI and ECIIA organised a Joint Seminar in Brussels. The seminar report contains the key messages. During the Joint Seminar two new products of the EUROSAI-ECIIA Cooperation Committee were presented: one on audit committees in the European public sector, based on a EUROSAI survey and an ECIIA survey, and another on national cooperation agreements between SAIs and internal auditors in the public sector in Europe.

Although the Cooperation Agreement signed between EUROSAI and ECIIA expired in June 2017, further ways for cooperation were discussed during the meeting held in Oslo in September 2018, resulting in the launching of a collaboration initiative focused on integrated reporting in the European public sector. This initiative, which aims to enhance knowledge on integrated reporting and its potential benefits to EUROSAI and ECIIA members, is being developed through a joint EUROSAI-ECIIA Project Group, set up in 2019 under the leadership of the SAI of The Netherlands. The Terms of Reference of this Project Group can be consulted here.