Becoming a ‘Living Institution’: The Evolution of the European Court of Auditors

Abstract

This article analyses the evolution of the European Court of Auditors, the Union’s newest institution, from the perspective of historical institutionalism. The main claim in the article is that the Court of Auditors had to strive to become a living institution, to find its place in the Union’s order, in an incremental fashion. The manner in which it developed norms and procedures for auditing are probed, in addition to its search for co‐operative relations with other EU institutions. The Court of Auditors became more embedded in the Union system as financial management assumed greater salience on the Union agenda, which in turn led to enhanced status and competences for the Court of Auditors.