Our activities in 2023

Table of Contents

• European Court of Auditors 6
• President’s foreword 7
• 2023 at a glance 9
• Our activities 10
• Our 2021-2025 strategy 10
• Auditing performance and regularity of EU actions 11
• Work programme 12
• Audit fieldwork 14
• Our reports 15
• Special reports and reviews 15
• Annual and specific annual reports 22
• Annual report on the EU budget for the financial year 2022 23
• Annual report on the European Development Funds for the financial year 2022 28
• Specific annual reports on EU agencies 29
• Specific annual report on Joint Undertakings for the financial year 2022 30
• Specific annual reports on European schools and contingent liabilities of the Single Resolution Board 31
• Opinions 32
• ECA journal 32
• Conferences and seminars 33
• Institutional relations 34
• European Parliament 34
• Council of the European Union 34
• National/regional parliaments and member state governments 35
• European Commission 37
• Cooperation with other supreme audit institutions 37
• Contact Committee of the EU supreme audit institutions 37
• SAIs of EU candidate and potential candidate countries 38
• INTOSAI 39
• EUROSAI 39
• Sustainable use of natural resources 17
• Special report 18/2023: EU climate and energy targets – 2020 targets achieved, but little indication that actions to reach the 2030 targets will be sufficient 17
• Investment for cohesion, growth and inclusion 18
• Special report 15/2023: The EU’s industrial policy on batteries – New strategic impetus needed 18
• External action, security and justice 19
• Special report 21/2023: The Spotlight Initiative to end violence against women and girls – Ambitious but so far with limited impact 19
• Regulation of markets and competitive economy 20
• Special report 26/2023: The Recovery and Resilience Facility’s performance monitoring framework – Measuring implementation progress but not sufficient to capture performance 20
• Financing and administering the Union 21
• Special report 05/2023: The EU’s financial landscape – A patchwork construction requiring further simplification and accountability 21
• Our management 40
• Members 40
• President 40
• Audit chambers and committees 42
• Measuring performance 43
• Media presence 44
• Impact and perception of our work 48
• Our appearances before other institutions, national/regional parliaments, and member state governments, and international activities 49
• Implementation of ECA recommendations 50
• Our staff 51
• Staff allocation 51
• Recruitment 51
• Age profile 52
• Equal opportunities 53
• Ethics 56
• Audit support 57
• Digital transformation of audit 57
• Visual communication 59
• Audit methodology 60
• Professional training 60
• Translation 61
• Cybersecurity 62
• Buildings 63
• Environmental management 64
• Introduction 67
• Economic standards 68
• Economic performance 68
• The UN’s sustainable development goals in an EU context 68
• Anti-corruption 73
• Social standards 74
• Employment 74
• Equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion 76
• Freedom of association and collective bargaining 76
• Training and education 77
• Environmental standards 78
• Our environmental policy 78
• Summary of environmental results 78
• Biodiversity 81
• Awareness raising 82
• AAR-Our_activities_2023_EN.pdf -1
• Economic standards -1
• Procurement practices 72