Norms, Experts and the EU Budget: The European Court of Auditors and the International Architecture of Standard-Setting

The European Court of Auditors prides itself on its institutional norms of independence, integrity, professionalism and transparency. As a collegiate body and official EU institution, it is the external auditor of the European Union, carrying out audit tasks in ‘close cooperation’ with supreme audit institutions (SAIs) from the member states. The Court is in the vanguard of audit practice, regularly adopting new audit standards, as established by international organisations that bring together professional and technical experts in the field. Nonetheless it has no legal mandate to ensure that the norms it adopts in its own audit practice are used by the SAIs. As such, it relies on voluntary horizontal structures as a means to bring multi-level audit actors together to share best practice and discuss new audit standards, though working groups and task forces. This article examines the nature of these horizontal governance arrangements, as well as the prevalence of networks of professional audit and accounting networks that regulate the audit profession and set standards. These professionals represent an epistemic community of technical experts, but they also influence the work of multi-level public bodies in the EU without any legal competence. Most are public but some are private. What are their interests? How do they secure changes in standards? As such, this paper questions the role the Court plays in 'shaping' these norms, but at the same time 'shopping' for them. It looks at the Court's own standards through the lens of the literature on norm dynamics and life cycles. As such, it looks at hoe accountable the tools are that equip the Court to help deliver accountability.