Rules of Procedure of the Court of Auditors of the European Communities
Date: 2002-01-31
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: European Court of Auditors, administrative structures, institutional structure, operation of the Institutions, rules of procedure

6.8.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 210/1

II

(Acts whose publication is not obligatory)

COURT OF AUDITORS

RULES OF

PROCEDURE OF THE COURT OF AUDITORS OF THE
COMMUNITIES (1)

EUROPEAN

CONTENTS

TITLE I: THE ORGANISATION OF THE COURT

CHAPTER I

Article 1

THE COURT

Corporate nature

SECTION 1

THE MEMBERS

Article 2

Article 3

Article 4

Article 5

Article 6

Article 7

Article 8

Commencement of term of office

Taking of oath

Members’ obligations

Outside activities of the Members

Compulsory retirement

Order of precedence

Temporary replacement of Members

SECTION 2

THE PRESIDENT

Article 9

Article 10

Article 11

SECTION 3

Article 12

SECTION 4

Article 13

Election of the President

Duties of the President

Temporary replacement of the President

THE AUDIT GROUPS

Creation of the audit groups and sharing-out of their responsibilities

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The Secretary-General of the Court

CHAPTER II

THE PERFORMANCE OF THE COURT’S DUTIES

Article 14

Article 15

Article 16

Article 17

Article 18

Article 19

Delegations

Authorising officer powers

Organisation of Court departments

TITLE II: THE COURT’S OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES

Decision-taking procedure

Scheduling of meetings

Agenda

(1) As adopted by the Court at its 668th meeting held on 31 January 2002.

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Article 20

Article 21

Article 22

Article 23

Article 24

Article 25

CHAPTER I

Article 26

CHAPTER II

Article 27

Article 28

Article 29

Article 30

Article 31

Article 32

Article 33

Chairing of meetings

Quorum

Adoption of decisions

Non-public nature of meetings

Closed sessions

Minutes of meetings

TITLE III: THE PROCEDURES

THE CONDUCT OF AUDITS

Audit methods

ANNUAL REPORTS, SPECIAL REPORTS, OPINIONS, OBSERVATIONS AND
STATEMENTS OF ASSURANCE
Rapporteurs

Examination by audit groups

Decision of the Court

Languages and authentication

Forwarding and publication

FINAL PROVISIONS

Implementing rules

Entry into force

5

5

5

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THE COURT OF AUDITORS OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty on European Union, and in particular Article 5 thereof,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Articles 246 to 248
thereof,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, and in particular
Articles 45a to 45c thereof,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, and in particular
Articles 160a to 160c thereof,

HAS ADOPTED THESE RULES:

TITLE I

THE ORGANISATION OF THE COURT

CHAPTER I

THE COURT

Article 1

Corporate nature

Pursuant to the provisions of the Treaties and of the Financial
Regulation, the Court shall be organised and shall act as a
corporate body, in accordance with these Rules of Procedure.

SECTION 1

THE MEMBERS

Article 2

Commencement of term of office

The term of office of
shall
commence as from the date fixed for that purpose in the
instrument of appointment, or, where there is no date fixed,
from the date of that instrument.

the Members of

the Court

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Article 3

Taking of oath

soon as possible
Before taking up his/her duties or as
thereafter, every Member appointed shall give the solemn
undertaking provided for in the Treaties.

Article 4

Members obligations

1. When carrying out their duties, the Members shall act in
a completely independent manner,
interest of
the Communities.

in the general

2.
In the performance of these duties, they shall neither
seek nor take instructions from any government or from any
other body. They shall
is
incompatible with their duties.

refrain from any act

that

3.
During their term of office and after it has come to an
end, they shall undertake to respect the obligations arising
therefrom, and in particular their duty to behave with integrity
and discretion as regards the acceptance, after they have ceased
to hold office, of certain appointments or benefits.

During their term of office they shall not engage in any

4.
other professional activity, whether remunerated or not.

Article 5

Outside activities of the Members

The Court shall lay down the rules for examining the outside
activities of the Members in respect of Articles 247(4) and (5)
of the EC Treaty, 45b(4) and (5) of the ECSC Treaty and
160b(4) and (5) of the EAEC Treaty.

Article 6

Compulsory retirement

1.
A Member may be deprived of his/her office or of
his/her right to a pension or of other benefits in its stead only
under the conditions laid down in Articles 247(7) of the EC
Treaty, 45b(7) of the ECSC Treaty and 160b(7) of the EAEC
Treaty.

2. Where the Court of Auditors, acting by a unanimous
decision of its Members, considers that a Member should be
deprived of his/her office or of his/her right to a pension, or of
other benefits in its stead, the Member concerned shall be
requested to submit, where appropriate, any comments he/she
may have to the Court, meeting in closed session.

3.
Once the Member concerned has been given a hearing in
accordance with the previous paragraph, the decision to refer
the matter to the Court of Justice shall be taken, by secret
ballot, on the basis of a written report by the President of the
Court, together, if need be, with the written observations of
the Member concerned.

Article 7

Order of precedence

shall

rank after

the President by date of
1. Members
appointment; where a Member has been re-appointed, his/her
earlier term of office shall be taken into consideration, whether
or not it immediately preceded the present term.

2. Members
according to age.

appointed on the

same day shall

rank

Article 8

Temporary replacement of Members

The Court shall
lay down rules for temporarily replacing a
Member if his/her office falls vacant or if he/she is absent or
indisposed.

SECTION 2

THE PRESIDENT

Article 9

Election of the President

In accordance with Articles 247(3) of

the EC Treaty,
1.
45b(3) of the ECSC Treaty and 160b(3) of the EAEC Treaty,
the Members of the Court shall appoint the President of the
Court from amongst themselves for a term of three years. The
President may be re-elected.

the expiry of

the term of office of
if

The Court shall elect a new President shortly before the
2.
the incumbent President.
expiry of
However,
term of office
coincides with the renewal of a part of the body of Members
in accordance with Articles 247(3) of the EC Treaty, 45b(3) of
the ECSC Treaty and 160b(3) of the EAEC Treaty, the election
shall take place immediately, or at the latest 15 working days,
after the Court in its new composition has taken up its duties.

the President’s

3.
If the office of President of the Court should fall vacant
before the expiry of the incumbent’s term, he/she shall be
replaced. The length of the interim President’s term of office
shall be limited to the remainder of that term.

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The President of the Court shall be elected by secret
in accordance with the procedure laid down by the

4.
ballot
Court.

Article 10

Duties of the President

2.

The vertical audit groups:

The vertical audit groups shall divide the tasks for which they
are responsible among the Members assigned to them. In so
doing, they shall ensure that the overall workload is shared out
allocation of
as
responsibilities to Members shall be taken by majority vote of
the Members assigned to each group. If there is no majority,
the matter shall be referred to the Court for a decision.

evenly as possible. Decisions on the

1.

The President of the Court shall:

3.

The horizontal audit group:

(a) call and chair meetings of the Court and be responsible for

the proper conduct of the sessions;

(b) ensure that the Court’s decisions are implemented;

(c) ensure that the departments of the Court operate properly

and that its various activities are soundly managed;

The horizontal audit group shall be made up of the Members
to whom the Court has entrusted the responsibility of a given
horizontal audit task, a representative of each vertical audit
group and, where relevant, such other Members as the Court
may have allocated to it.

SECTION 4

(d) appoint an agent to represent the Court in all litigation in

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

which the Court is involved;

(e) represent the Court of Auditors in all its external relations,
in particular in its relations with the discharge authority,
the other Community institutions and the Member States’
audit institutions.

The President may delegate all or part of his/her duties to

2.
one or more Members.

Article 11

Temporary replacement of the President

The Court shall lay down the rules for temporarily replacing
the President if the office of President falls vacant or if the
President is absent or indisposed.

Article 13

The Secretary-General of the Court

The Secretary-General of the Court shall be appointed by
1.
the Court following an election by secret ballot, in accordance
with the procedure which it has laid down.

The Secretary-General shall be accountable to the Court,
2.
to which he/she shall make periodic reports on the discharge
of his/her duties.

Under the authority of the Court, the Secretary-General

3.
shall be responsible for the Court’s Secretariat.

4.
The Secretary-General shall exercise the powers vested in
the Appointing Authority within the meaning of Article 2 of
the Staff Regulations of officials of the European Communities,
unless the Court decides otherwise.

SECTION 3

THE AUDIT GROUPS

Article 12

Creation of the audit groups and sharing-out of their
responsibilities

1.

Creation of the audit groups:

Audit groups with vertical and horizontal responsibilities and
with solely preparatory responsibilities shall be created by a
special implementing Decision of the Court, which shall also
define their respective responsibilities. Each Member shall be
assigned by the Court to an audit group, at the proposal of the
President.

The Members shall be accountable to the group and to the
Court for the performance of the duties entrusted to them.

The Secretary-General

5.
the
management of the Court’s staff and for the administration of
the Court, as well as for any other task assigned to him/her by
the Court.

responsible

shall be

for

The Court shall

lay down the rules for temporarily
absent or

if he/she

is

Secretary-General

the

6.
replacing
indisposed.

CHAPTER II

THE PERFORMANCE OF THE COURT’S DUTIES

Article 14

Delegations

1.
responsibility is

The Court may, provided the principle of collective
its

respected, empower one or more of

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Members to take clearly defined management or administrative
measures on its behalf and under its supervision, and in
particular to take action in preparation for a decision to be
taken at a later date by the Members of
the Court. The
Members thus delegated shall report back to the Court on the
measures they have taken.

The Court shall

2.
lay down the conditions on which
Members may authorise one or more officials or members of
staff
to sign documents concerning matters within that
Member’s responsibility.

Article 15

Authorising officer powers

Authorising officer powers shall be allocated to the Members
of the Court and to the Secretary-General and exercised by
them as specified in the internal rules for the implementation
of the budget.

Article 16

Organisation of Court departments

The Court

1.
departments.

shall

determine

the

structure

of

its

On the Secretary-General’s proposal,

2.
shall
distribute the posts set out in the establishment plan among
the administrative departments and the audit groups.

the Court

the Court shall

these Rules of
3. Without prejudice to Article 13(4) of
lay down the conditions under
Procedure,
which the powers conferred by the Staff Regulations applicable
to officials on the Appointing Authority and those conferred
by the conditions of employment applicable to other servants
on the
contracts of
employment shall be exercised.

authority empowered to conclude

TITLE II

THE COURT’S OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES

Article 17

Decision-taking procedure

Additional meetings may be organised on the initiative of the
President or at the request of at least two Members.

Article 19

Agenda

The agenda for each meeting shall be drawn up by the

1.
President.

2.
Except for urgent business, duly justified and approved
by the President on a case-by-case basis, the draft agenda and
relevant documents shall be sent to the Members of the Court
at least five working days before the meeting. In order that this
the Court shall
time limit may be respected, Members of
ensure that documents are handed in to the General Secretariat
of the Court for inclusion on the agenda within the time limit
specified for this purpose.

If, before

a meeting, documents have not been
3.
distributed within the period of five working days mentioned
in the preceding paragraph, each Member of the Court has the
right to ask for an item on the agenda to be adjourned or that
no decision be taken after the item has been discussed.

The draft agenda and any requests

4.
for amendment
thereto shall be placed before the Court, which shall adopt the
agenda at the beginning of each meeting. The Court may, by a
unanimous decision, discuss a question that is not on the draft
agenda. Any other problem relating to the agenda shall be
decided by a majority of
the Members present. When the
agenda is being adopted, Members shall indicate any matters
arising from the minutes of previous meetings submitted for
they wish to raise during the meeting,
their approval
together with their intention to speak on other matters under
(cid:145)Any other business(cid:146).

that

Article 20

Chairing of meetings

The meetings of the Court shall be chaired by the President. If
the President is absent or indisposed, they shall be chaired by
the Member of
temporarily acting as
President, within the meaning of Article 11 of these Rules of
Procedure.

the Court who is

Article 21

Quorum

Ten Members shall be a quorum.

Without prejudice to the written procedure laid down in
Article 22(5) of these Rules of Procedure, the Court shall make
its decisions in formal session.

Article 22

Adoption of decisions

Article 18

Scheduling of meetings

1. Without prejudice to Articles 248(4), third subparagraph,
of the EC Treaty, 45c(4), third subparagraph, of the ECSC
Treaty and 160c(4), third subparagraph, of the EAEC Treaty,
the Court shall determine which decisions are to be taken by a
majority of the Members of the Court.

The Court shall set provisional dates for its meetings once a
year, before the end of the preceding year.

2.
All other decisions (cid:151) with the exception of the decisions
provided for in Article 6 and Article 19(4) of these Rules of

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Procedure (cid:151) shall be taken by a majority of the Members
present at the meeting of the Court.

3. Without prejudice to paragraph 2, the Court may, on a
proposal from one of its Members, declare, by a majority of
the Members present at the meeting, that a specific question
referred to the Court shall be decided by a majority of the
Members of the Court.

4. Where a majority vote by the Members present
is
required to take a decision, in the event that the number of
votes for and against should be equal the President shall have
the casting vote.

5.
The Court shall determine, on a case-by-case basis, which
decisions are to be adopted by the written procedure and shall
lay down the rules for this procedure.

TITLE III

THE PROCEDURES

CHAPTER I

THE CONDUCT OF AUDITS

Article 26

Audit methods

shall

The Court

lay down detailed rules

1.
the
performance of the audits with which it is charged by the
Treaties, and in particular those deriving from Articles 248 of
the EC Treaty, 45c of the ECSC Treaty and 160c of the EAEC
Treaty.

for

Article 23

Non-public nature of meetings

2.
The Court shall perform its audits in accordance with the
aims laid down in its work programme, which also includes
the tasks of each audit sector as well as tasks grouped around
the horizontal audit topics.

The Court’s meetings shall not be public.

CHAPTER II

Article 24

Closed sessions

1. Where
subjects
discussion so justifies, the Court may hold a closed session.

confidential nature of

the

the

ANNUAL REPORTS, SPECIAL REPORTS, OPINIONS, OBSERVATIONS
AND STATEMENTS OF ASSURANCE

for

Article 27

Rapporteurs

The President of

2.
the Court shall decide whether the
subjects for discussion are confidential in nature and are to be
discussed at a closed session.

3.
Closed sessions shall be conducted without interpreters
except where a decision to the contrary has been adopted at a
previous Court meeting.

For every audit carried out,

1.
rapporteur shall, if need be, refer the matter to the Court.

the Member acting as

As soon as it has been asked for an opinion within the
2.
meaning either of Articles 279 and 280 of the EC Treaty, 78h
of the ECSC Treaty and 183 of the EAEC Treaty, or of Articles
248 of the EC Treaty, 45c of the ECSC Treaty and 160c of the
EAEC Treaty,
its
Members, the rapporteur(s) with responsibility for appraising
the matter and preparing the draft.

from amongst

shall appoint,

the Court

Article 25

Minutes of meetings

Draft minutes shall be drawn up for each meeting of the

1.
Court.

2.
The draft minutes shall be circulated as soon as possible
to the Members of the Court and shall be approved by the
Court at a later meeting.

3. With regard to the observations submitted under Articles
248 of the EC Treaty, 45c of the ECSC Treaty and 160c of the
EAEC Treaty, the rapporteur Member shall be the Member
responsible for the audit area concerned or,
in the case of
horizontal audit topics specifically provided for in the work
programme, the Member expressly appointed for this purpose.

Article 28

Examination by audit groups

3.
Once approved,
Secretary-General’s signature.

the Minutes shall be certified by the

Before being submitted to the Court, the draft observations
and opinions, drawn up by the rapporteur Member, shall be
examined by an audit group.

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Article 29

Decision of the Court

shall lay down the rules on the forwarding and publication of
its reports, opinions, observations and statements of assurance.

1.
After examination by the audit group, the Court shall
examine the draft observations and opinions and shall decide
what follow-up action is to be taken on them.

the final

The Court shall adopt

its reports,
2.
opinions, observations and of
the Statement of assurance
which it must deliver in accordance with Articles 248 of the
EC Treaty, 45c of the ECSC Treaty and 160c of the EAEC
Treaty.

text of

FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 32

Implementing rules

The Court shall determine the rules for implementing these
Rules of Procedure.

Article 30

Languages and authentication

Article 33

Entry into force

The reports, opinions, observations and statements of

1.
assurance shall be drafted in the 11 official languages.

2.
The documents referred to in paragraph 1 shall be
authenticated by the apposition of the President’s signature on
the 11 language versions.

These Rules of Procedure shall cancel and replace those
adopted by the Court at its meeting of 21 and 22 March
2001.

They shall enter into force on 31 January 2002.

Article 31

Forwarding and publication

Done at Luxembourg, 31 January 2002.

Without prejudice to Articles 248(4) of the EC Treaty, 45c(4)
of the ECSC Treaty and 160c(4) of the EAEC Treaty or to the
applicable provisions of the Financial Regulation, the Court

For the Court of Auditors

President

Juan Manuel FABRA VALL(cid:201)S