The ECA is a collegiate body of 27 Members, one from each Member State.

The ECA’s Members and its audit staff are distributed across five audit chambers.

The chambers, which are headed by an elected Dean, adopt special reports, reviews, specific annual reports and opinions. They also produce the ECA’s annual reports on the EU budget and the European Development Funds, which are adopted by the Court as a whole.

The full Court of 27 Members meets around twice a month.

The ECA has a number of committees which make decisions on its work and its organisation. The Audit Quality Control Committee comprises the Member for Audit Quality Control, who acts as the chair of the Committee, and one Member from each chamber. It takes decisions about the ECA’s audit poli​cies, standards and methodology.

The Administrative Committee comprises the ECA’s President, the Deans of the chambers, the Member for Institutional Relations and the Member for Audit Quality Control. It takes decisions on issues related to administration, strategy, work programme and communication.

The President

The European Court of Auditors is led by a President, a Member elected by the college to serve as “first amongst equals” for a renewable term of three years. The President chairs Court meetings, ensures that the institution and its activities are soundly managed, and represents the Court in its external relations, in particular in its relations with the discharge authority.

The Members

Each Member State nominates a candidate to serve as an ECA Member. Members are formally appointed by the Council after consultation with the European Parliament. They are appointed for a renewable term of six years. They make a solemn declaration to perform their duties in complete independence and in the general interest of the European Union.

Members are assigned to one of the five audit chambers. They are responsible for leading audits and guiding reports through the adoption procedure at chamber or Court level. When a report has been adopted, the Member presents it to our institutional stakeholders such as the European Parliament and the Council, and to the media.

As the college of 27 Members is the ECA’s highest decision-making body, Members also have the power to take decisions about broader strategic and administrative issues.

The Secretary-General

The Secretary-General is the ECA’s most senior civil servant, appointed by the Court for a renewable period of six years. The Secretary-General is responsible for staff management and for the ECA’s administration. The Secretary-General is also responsible for the Court’s secretariat, the ECA department which manages the institution’s records and internal procedures. The Data Protection Officer and the Information Security Officer are also part of the Secretariat-General.

The ECA's staff

The ECA has around 900 members of staff. Most of them are auditors, but many others work in translation and general administration.

The audit staff have a broad range of professional backgrounds and experience in both the public and private sectors, including in accountancy, internal and external audit, law and economics. The ECA's translators ensure that EU citizens can read our publications in any official EU language.

The ECA employs nationals from all EU Member States. As EU civil servants, ECA staff are subject to the EU Staff Regulations. The ECA employs almost equal numbers of men and women.

Since , the ECA is proud to have built up a dedicated, professional and experienced workforce devoted to protecting the financial interests of EU citizens.