The European Court of Auditors (ECA) informed in the OJEU on September 17th about the publication of Special Report No 5/2008 “The European Union's agencies: Getting results”. The aim of the audit was to consider whether the analysed agencies had introduced the procedures and tools needed to provide reasonable assurance that their activities were performed in such a way as to achieve the results expected.

The so-called "regulatory" European agencies are independent, specialised bodies with responsibility for implementing certain aspects of Community sectoral policy. The regulatory agencies are subject to the principle of sound financial management. The aim of this audit carried out by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) is to guarantee that their results correspond to their objectives.

The Court’s findings relate to eight regulatory agencies selected from the European Community Agencies (European Agency for Safety and Health at Work; European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States; European Environment Agency; European Food Safety Authority; European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions; European Maritime Safety Agency; European Medicines Agency; European Network and Information Security Agency) selected on the basis of a series of criteria such as the type of powers exercised, the length of time they had been established, and the budget or staff numbers.

The audit addressed three questions:

1. Did the agencies plan their activities adequately by setting themselves specific, measurable objectives?
2. Did the agencies introduce sound tools for monitoring their activities?
3. Did the agencies report properly on their activities and evaluate their results?

In the scope of this analysis the Court made a series of recommendations to the agencies:

• Adopt multiannual and annual programmes based on ex ante evaluations and accompanied by clear objectives and performance indicators, and adopt activity-based budgeting.
• Set up management control tools linked to the objectives and the performance indicators specified in their work programmes.
• Provide activity reports offering an assessment of the progress made in terms of achieving the set objectives and modify their evaluation process by linking the rhythm of the overall periodic evaluations to that of the multiannual programmes.

The Special Report Nº 5/2008 can be accessed for consultation or downloading on the European Court of Auditors' website.