As approved during the past EUROSAI Governing Board meeting held in Helsinki, a commemorative event for the 25^th anniversary of the foundation of EUROSAI was organised on the sidelines of the VIII OLACEFS-EUROSAI Joint Conference that was celebrated in Quito (Ecuador) from the 24^th to the 26^th of June 2015.

The event, which took place on the 25^th of June after the closing of the Joint Conference, started with the words of Mr. Felipe García Ortiz, on behalf of EUROSAI’s Secretariat, making reference to the challenges already faced by our Organisation and the ones that still lay ahead. He pointed out our greatest strength, which is the added value that each member SAI gives to the whole, and insisted that this spirit is precisely what will enable the achievement of all the goals we have set together.

A commemorative video was then displayed, highlighting the milestones in the long way we have walked since the moment when the idea of a European Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions materialized in Madrid in 1990.

After the video, Mr. Rekai Akyel, President of the SAI of Turkey, had the opportunity to address the delegations and stressed EUROSAI’s high degree of activity and the importance of maintaining strong bonds with other INTOSAI Regional Working Groups in order to “provide us with a wide range of opportunities to reshape our approaches, methodologies, work styles and reform ourselves in general”.

Ms. Helena Abreu Lopes, Member of the SAI of Portugal (SAI which held the Presidency of EUROSAI until 2014), conveyed a message from Mr. Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins, President of the SAI of Portugal. His message was centered on the importance of the leadership of EUROSAI’s Presidents and Governing Boards, and the key role of EUROSAI Secretariat on translating those visions into concrete actions to ensure the important stability and continuity in the EUROSAI activity and to allow sustained and sustainable development of EUROSAI. In his message, Mr. d'Oliveira Martins also manifested his strong belief in “sharing knowledge and experience as the best way to learn and improve each SAI, thus contributing to a more effective public audit and a sounder public sector management”.

This view was also shared by Ms. Monika González-Koss, representative from the INTOSAI Secretariat, who celebrated the permanent nature of EUROSAI’S Secretariat and thanked it for the fluent and fruitful collaboration that has always existed between both Secretariats, which has permitted the achievement of the goals and principles developed by INTOSAI. Ms. González-Koss also highlighted the important role played by the statutory bodies “which are essential parts to establish the main lines of the Organization, for the decision-making process and to ensure that the necessary action is properly deployed to enforce its goals”.

The closing speech was pronounced by Mr. Arno Visser, Acting President of EUROSAI, who reflected on how cooperation made possible the huge development our Organisation has gone through in 25 years, and how this was unimaginable before 1990.

Mr. Visser then invited everyone to toast to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of EUROSAI and, during the cocktail reception that followed, a photograph exhibition, portraying the most significant moments in EUROSAI’s history, was displayed.