EUROSAI. Magazine N18 - 2012

> 31 < INFORMATION ON EU EUROPEAN ORGANISATION OF SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS www.eurosai.org No. 18 - 2012 The 2012 annual meeting of the Contact Committee of the Heads of the EU Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) and of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) was hosted by the Tribunal de Contas of Portugal, in Estoril, on 18 and 19 October 2012 . The meeting, chaired by the President of Tribunal de Contas , Mr. Guilherme d’Oliveira Martins, was attended by 93 delegates from Member States’ SAIs and the ECA, as well as the SAIs of Croatia (acceding country), four candidate countries (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey) and representatives of IDI-INTOSAI (Norway) and SIGMA (OECD). The first theme of the meeting was addressed through a Seminar: Challenges for SAIs in preparing for the next EU financial framework period . The Seminar had the participation of a distinguished guest speaker, the European Commissioner Mr. Algirdas Sˇ emeta, responsible for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud. Representatives of several national EU SAIs and the ECA presented their viewpoints and current experiences. It was recognized that the large and important “package” of legislative proposals regarding the next financial framework period will significantly alter the financial management landscape of the EU. The ECA and the national EU SAIs, as external auditors of the EU and its Member States, will be affected by the review of the existing arrangements for EU spending and funding launched on the occasion of the multiannual financial framework (MFF) 2014 - 2020 . The Contact Committee has been made aware of some of the challenges raised by this process and has analyzed the proposals and their potential impact on the work of its members, as well as on the soundmanagement of EU and national finances—the discussions on the revision of the Financial Regulation at the Contact Committee meetings held in 2010 and 2011 have helped to clarify the subject. ThenewFinancialRegulationwill reinforcetheaccountability of Member States. New legislative acts of the EU concern fundamental matters such as strengthening budgetary surveillance and economic policies surveillance of Member States; enforcing the correction of excessive deficits and macroeconomic imbalances and setting requirements for their fiscal framework. SAIs of the Member States of the EU and the ECA aim at contributing to better systems and to enhancing the effectiveness of the national use of Community funds, as well as to the new economic and fiscal governance measures of the European Union, and are concerned with an independent and professional view on how to improve the quality of spending, including both national and EU contributions in co-financed projects; therefore, the importance of initiatives of cooperation between national SAIs and the ECA with regard to EU funds must be highlighted. In the context of the second theme, Latest developments in responding to the financial crisis and SAIs’ experience of related audits, the results of some specific analysis requested by the Contact Committee were delivered: the report of the Task Force to explore possibilities for cooperation with Eurostat and national statistical institutions; the state of play of the joint initiative of the Euro-area SAIs regarding the external audit of the Meeting of the Contact Committee of the Heads of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the European Union Estoril (Portugal), 18 - 19 October 2012