Constitutional Meaning of the European Court of Auditors(ECA) in the European Union (EU)

If we look at the constitutional meaning of the European Court of Auditors(ECA) through the financial control carried out by the ECA within the European Union, it can be summarized as follows. First, from the perspective of democratic principles, the financial control of the EU budget carried out through the audit work of the ECA supports the financial control of the European Parliament, which can be seen as the representative body of EU citizens, and the European Council, which can be seen as the representative body of member states. It can be evaluated as being responsible for the following functions. In terms of democratic principles, the financial control function of the Board of Audit and Inspection can be said to be similar. Second, the audit scope of the ECA is recognized for all institutions that have made EU budget income and expenditures, but in terms of audit work efficiency and independence in audit work performance, the ECA exercises independent authority in that it determines and performs the audit scope at its discretion. Third, due to the limitations of the authority under the European Union Treaty, the member state audit institutions and the ECA establish a cooperative relationship in auditing the EU budget execution while recognizing the independence of each other's audit institutions. On the other hand, this is an aspect that passively confirms how important and necessary the financial control of a community is, whether a member state or the European Union. Fourth, the ECA's audit can confirm that the rule of law principles are being realized in terms of evaluating the legitimacy and efficiency of EU budget execution. However, in this case, the ECA's audit results are not legally binding, but in fact have a real influence on EU institutions or member state institutions, so their effect is limited to having a political or advisory effect, not a legal enforcement effect.