4th EUROSAI WGEA Members meeting,

Luxembourg, 27-29 November 2006

The European Court of Auditors hosted the 4th EUROSAI WGEA Members meeting which was held from 27 to 29 November 2006 in Luxembourg. The meeting was organized on the initiative and with a great support of the NIK (Poland) as the Group’s Co-ordinator. The representatives of 32 European SAIs and invited guests from the European Commission, the Ministry for the Environment of Luxembourg, the European Environmental Agency (EEA), the Academy of European Law, the Chair of the INTOSAI WGEA (SAI of Canada) as well as SAI of Tunis took part in the meeting.

The essential part of the meeting was Environmental Auditing Seminar devoted to NATURA 2000 audits - the European biodiversity audits, flood protection auditing and selected methodological auditing issues. More than 20 presentations were delivered.

Decisions concetning further steps within the parallel audit of implementation of the European network NATURA 2000 were taken.

Final decisions on initiating parallel audit of the utilization of international funds allocated for the elimination of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster were also taken. The assembly formally established the Subgroup on the Audit of Natural and Man-Caused Disasters Consequences and Radioactive Wastes Elimination. The Subgroup will work within the EUROSAI WGEA structure and will be headed by the SAI of Ukraine. The main tasks and rules of functioning of the Subgroup (including the rules of Subgroup’s membership) are specified in Terms of Reference – the document approved in Luxembourg and being an integral part of the Resolution of the establishing the Subgroup the Resolution of the establishing the Subgroup.

See also the Ukrainian SAI's presentations on:

At the end of the meeting the EUROSAI WGEA 2007 Workplan was approved. Furthermore, the methodological approach to the audits of implementation of Kioto Protocol commitments was selected as the main topic of the next year EUROSAI WGEA seminar in Bratislava (Slovakia).

In the closing speech of the EUROSAI WGEA Co-ordinator some ideas how to achieve still better work results of the Group’s, were put forward for consideration and further discussion. In the opinion of the Co-ordinator, the EUROSAI WGEA should:

to a greater degree base its work on scientific research, and use research results to program future audit themes;
make audit results and achievements better known to the public and improve cooperation with the media;
win support from prestigious NGOs in order to exercise public pressure towards improving the effectiveness of audits;
expand the cooperation with other regional Working Groups in particular the ASOSAI and ARABOSAI;
simplify coordination of the Group’s work – the current model with six Sub – Coordinators seems to have lost its effectiveness. (It proved very useful at the beginning, but at present the Group should, in the opinion of the Co-ordinator, choose a simpler model for coordination);
encourage its members to be more active in sharing information on audit plans and results by placing them on the EUROSAI WGEA webpage.

All members were asked to make comments and suggestions on the above topics and send them directly to the Secretariat of the Co-ordinator.