Professional auditors, rather than political appointees, should be chosen for the European Court of Auditors, a report to an Oireachtas committee has urged. Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent, reports.
At present, each European Union members-state has the right to appoint a member of the court - each of whom receives approximately €200,000 a year plus perks.
Ireland's current member is former Fianna Fáil Cabinet minister and former Galway West TD, Mrs Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, who has served in the Luxembourg post since 1999.
The report, commissioned by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs, was carried out by a team led by Prof Patricia Barker, of Dublin City University.
"At present, members are nominated by the government in their own member-state. This militates against assessing the competencies of the leadership term of the court as a package," it said.
Sharply critical at times of the court's operation, the report states: "There is, for example, only one professionally-qualified accountant . . . In general, the experience . . . has been of a mixed bag, with some highly energetic and very productive and effective members and some who are perceived as less effective."
It went on to state: "Some of the 'political appointees' have proved to be visionary, extremely hard-working and excellent leaders of change. On the other hand, some of the professionally-qualified accountants have proved quiet and not necessarily at the cutting edge of professional developments."
The upcoming EU enlargement in May 2004, when the Union will expand to 25 states, offered a "good opportunity" to reform the court, which monitors the EU's €80 billion a year budget.
"The court should have executives who are skilled and competent in the technical business of applying world-class auditing procedures to the finances of the Union. Competence is the key and not local representation."
The report points out that the practice of each member-state having a member of the court began in the early days of European integration, when there was a need to establish a "broad oversight board".
But it concludes: "Now the whole international environment of audit has become highly technical and requires a very specific range of qualification, skills and experience."
Although the court has a training budget for its 600 staff, the report said that there had been "no history of continuing professional development" for its most senior figures.
"There is a small training budget for training members, but it has generally been the case that members are not interested in the development of their own audit or business competencies.
"Additionally, they have been reluctant to join training courses with other members of staff.
"We believe that it is imperative that all the staff of a modern audit office, right up to the top, should subject themselves to regular formal updating of their skills in this rapidly-changing environment."
The chairman of the Oireachtas European Affairs Committee, Fine Gael TD Mr Gay Mitchell, will present the report to his counterparts in other EU parliaments during Ireland's forthcoming EU Presidency.