Call to scrap yearly statement on EU budget

EUObserver reported that former European Court President Jan Karlsson recpmmended to a EP Hearing in May 2012 that the EU should scrap the annual Declaration of Assurance (DAS) on the EU's accounts prepared by the Court of Auditors.

(The Treaty (art. 287.1 TFEU) requires the European Court of Auditors to examine the accounts of all revenue and expenditure of the Union and to publish its opinion annually. To this end the Court issues a Statement of Assurance, which is generally known by its French acronym DAS (Déclaration d'Assurance).

The DAS is the Court's formal opinion on the reliability of the EU accounts and on the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. Its aim is to provide stakeholders, mainly the European Parliament and the Council but also EU citizens, with an audit opinion on whether EU money has been properly spent in accordance with the law and reliably recorded in the annual consolidated accounts of the European Union).

ECA: Audit: Statement of Assurance (DAS) http://eca.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/audit/StatementofAssurance

Wikipedia: Court of Auditors: Declaration of Assurance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_of_Auditors#Declaration_of_Assurance

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