EU Primer - part 1

Non-EU visitors to European blogs may be mystified by some aspects of the EU, so this is the first of an occasional series of primers on the EU and its functions.

Court of Auditors

The Court of Auditors is an important body within the EU, which each year, in accordance with well-established traditions, solemnly certifies EU accounts as incomprehensible. Once this happens, EU officials are allowed to breathe an official sigh of relief and carry on with business as usual. The importance of incomprehensible accounts to the EU can hardly be overstated.

Sometimes, those outside the EU and even a few critics within the EU family, fail to understand why it is so important that the EU should spend vast amounts of money in ways that are entirely incomprehensible even to its own auditors. Well of course it may indeed seem odd to outsiders, yet as always there are reasons, although it is perhaps a little unfortunate that these too are incomprehensible. Sadly, one can’t have everything even in the EU.