The European Court of Auditors, based in Luxembourg, is the EU's independent external auditor. It checks whether EU money is collected and spent correctly and well, and publishes reports, but it is not a court in the judicial sense and cannot punish anyone.
- Acronym
- ECA
- Seat
- Luxembourg
- Established
- 1977; EU institution since 1993 (Maastricht Treaty)
- Members
- 27 members, one per member state, appointed by the Council after consulting the European Parliament for renewable six-year terms
- Head
- Tony Murphy, President since 2022, re-elected for a second term from 1 October 2025
- Legal basis
- Articles 285 to 287 TFEU
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) audits the EU’s finances. It examines whether EU revenue has been collected and EU spending carried out legally and regularly, and whether money has been used efficiently. Its audits cover the EU institutions, but also national and regional authorities and other recipients of EU funds, because much of the EU budget is spent in the member states.
Despite its name, the ECA is not a court of law. It has no judicial powers and no investigative powers. When its auditors suspect fraud or corruption, it passes the information to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) or the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), which can investigate.
The ECA has one member from each member state. Each country proposes a candidate, who must have worked in an external audit body or be especially qualified, and whose independence is beyond doubt. The Council appoints the members after consulting the European Parliament, for renewable six-year terms. The members elect a President from among themselves for a renewable three-year term.
Its main publication is the annual report on the EU budget, which includes a “statement of assurance” on the reliability of the accounts and the legality of transactions. It also publishes special reports on specific policies and programmes. These reports are the basis on which the European Parliament decides each year whether to grant “discharge”, that is, to approve the Commission’s management of the budget.
Example
In its annual report on the 2025 budget year, published in 2026, the ECA estimated the level of error in EU budget spending at 3.8% (3.6% for 2024). Because these errors were judged both material and pervasive, it issued an “adverse opinion” on EU budget expenditure, while finding revenue free from material error. Spending on cohesion had the highest estimated error, at 6.6%.
Debates and limits
An estimated “level of error” is not the same as fraud: it measures money that should not have been paid under the applicable rules, most often because of ineligible costs or beneficiaries, breaches of procurement rules or missing documents. The ECA notes that errors are concentrated in spending based on reimbursing costs under complex rules. Critics of EU spending cite the repeated adverse opinions as evidence of weak control; others point out that a large share of EU spending is managed jointly with national authorities (“shared management”) and that the ECA’s role is to identify problems, not to sanction them. Its opinions are advisory and its findings are not legally binding.