Court of Auditors - History

History

European Union


Politics and government of
the European Union

Parliament
  • President
    • Martin Schulz
  • Largest groups;
    • Joseph Daul: EPP
    • María Badía (Interim): S&D
  • 7th session
    • MEPs (736)
      • 2009-14 term
  • Bureau
    • Vice Presidents
    • Quaestor
  • Conference
  • Legislative procedure
European Council
  • President
    • Herman Van Rompuy
  • Parties
  • List of meetings
Council
  • Presidency
    • Cyprus
  • Configurations
    • General
    • Foreign
    • Economic
      • Euro
  • Legislative procedure
  • Voting
  • Secretariat
    • Secretary-General
      • Uwe Corsepius
    • COREPER
Commission
  • Barroso Comm.
  • President
    • José M. Barroso
  • Vice Presidents
    • Catherine Ashton
    • Viviane Reding
    • Joaquín Almunia
    • Siim Kallas
    • Neelie Kroes
    • Antonio Tajani
    • Maroš Šefčovič
    • Commissioners
    • Civil Service
    • Secretary-General
    • Catherine Day
Court of Justice
  • Court of Justice
  • General Court
  • Civil Service Tribunal
  • Members
  • Rulings
Central Bank
  • Central Bank
    • President
    • ESCB
    • Euro
    • EMU
    • Eurozone
Court of Auditors
  • Court of Auditors
    • Budget
    • OLAF]
Agencies
  • Agencies
Other bodies
  • Investment Bank
  • CoR
  • EESC
  • Ombudsman
  • National parliaments
Policies and issues
  • Budget
  • Four Freedoms
    • Economic area
    • Single market
    • Area of FS&J
    • Schengen
  • Policies
    • Agricultural
    • Energy
    • Fisheries
    • Regional
  • Citizenship
    • Identity
    • Pro-Europeanism
    • Euroscepticism
  • Integration
    • Supranationalism
    • Federalism
    • U.S.E.
    • Multi-speed
    • Opt-outs
    • Enhanced co-op
    • Withdrawal
Foreign relations
  • High Representative
    • Catherine Ashton
  • Ext. Action Service
  • Foreign Policy
  • Defence Policy
  • Enlargement
Elections
  • 1979, 1984, 1989
    1994, 1999, 2004
  • 2009 (last election)
  • 2014 (next election)
  • Political parties
  • Constituencies
  • Referendums
Law
  • Acquis
    • Primacy
    • Subsidiarity
  • Treaties
  • Fundamental Rights
  • Membership

The Court of Auditors was created by the 1975 Budgetary Treaty and was formally established on 18 October 1977, holding its first session a week later. At that time the Court was not a formal institution, it was an external body designed to audit the finances of the European Communities. It replaced two separate audit bodies, one which dealt with the finances of the European Economic Community and Euratom and one which dealt with the European Coal and Steel Community.

The Court did not have a defined legal status until the Treaty of Maastricht when it was made the fifth institution, the first new institution since the founding of the Community. By becoming an institution it gained some new powers, such as the ability to bring actions before the European Court of Justice (ECJ). However its audit power related only to the European Community pillar of the EU, but under the Treaty of Amsterdam it gained the full power to audit finances of the whole of the EU.

Read more about this topic:  Court Of Auditors

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    It’s not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions.
    Norman Mailer (b. 1923)

    All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and say, the being he has thus deeply injured is his inferior.
    Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)

    The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion.
    Samuel Butler (1835–1902)