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Court of Auditors: appointment of a Romanian member

2019/0802(NLE)

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Indrek TARAND (Greens/EFA, EE) on the nomination of Viorel Ştefan as a Member of the Court of Auditors.

The committee assessed the credentials of the proposed candidate, in particular in view of the requirements laid down in Article 286(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and heard the Council’s nominee for membership of the Court of Auditors.

The committee recommended that the European Parliament deliver an unfavourable opinion on the Council’s nomination of Viorel Ştefan as a Member of the Court of Auditors.

Viorel Ştefan was Minister of Public Finance in 2017 and has been Deputy Prime Minister in the Romanian government since 2018. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party.

In his answers to the questionnaire, the candidate stated:

- fully understand the need to strictly respect the principle of independence and therefore to be totally independent in the performance of his or her duties;

- have (neither he nor his close relations) interests in business activities or commitments or actions within companies that could be incompatible with his future responsibilities;

- be prepared to communicate all its financial interests and other commitments to the President of the Court of Auditors and to make them public;

- not be a party to any ongoing legal proceedings;

- intend to resign both from the Romanian Parliament and from all his posts and responsibilities of the party.

Viorel Ştefan stated that the European Court of Auditors plays an essential role in not only promoting and supporting a culture of sound financial management in practice but also in helping to ensure its long-term sustainability in all public institutions.

As regards specific ways of improving cooperation between the Court of Auditors and the CONT Committee, he considered that the way to achieve this was to establish continuous and effective dialogue in which the Court takes into account and responds to Members' expectations while respecting the principle of independence.