Purpose and types of opinions
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Purpose and types of opinions

Purpose and types of opinions

Opinions set out the ECA’s view on proposals for new or updated EU legislation.
Opinion
Concept
Ref: 62.100

Definition

Opinions set out the ECA’s view on proposals for new or updated EU legislation with an impact on the financial management of EU funds or related aspects, based on its accumulated audit experience and other knowledge.

Principles

Through our opinions, we aim to make a useful contribution to legislative decision-making, by identifying where proposals are unclear, open to misinterpretation or with potentially unexpected consequences. Opinions can include suggestions for change, if necessary for clarifying the points we are making or when otherwise considered useful. We publish our opinions in sufficient time for the European Parliament, Council or other bodies to take account of them when deciding on the legislation concerned. We issue opinions:
  • when it is mandatory for us to be consulted on financial rules (Art 322 TFEU), the fight against fraud (Art 325(4) TFEU) and staff regulations (Art 336 TFEU); and
  • when one of the institutions or bodies requests our opinion under Article 287(4) of the TFEU. The ECA is not obliged to respond to all such requests, but will generally do so when our contribution is likely to be useful to our stakeholders.
In other cases, we may comment on legislative proposals in the form of ‘Observations on a proposal for legislation on XXX’ on the basis of Article 287(4) of the TFEU.

Related documents

Standards INTOSAI-P 1 section 12
Rules Art 322 TFEU
Art 325 TFEU
Art 336 TFEU
Art 287(4) TFEU
Last Modified: 09/03/2022 12:26   Tags: