Presenting the European Court of Auditors’ 2016 Work Programme to the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control, ECA president Vitor Caldeira said the court would start an audit later this year on the European Commission’s response to the refugee crisis, as well as audits on anti-terrorism tools, human trafficking prevention and aid to states that are potential sources of migrants, such as Tunisia and the Central African Republic.

This comes on top of an ongoing audit of migration spending in southern Mediterranean and eastern neighbourhood countries.

Other audit priorities include the financial and economic governance of the EU, Calderia told the MEPs.

“In 2016, the Court plans to report on financial assistance to member states, the Excessive Deficit Procedure and the supervision of EU credit rating agencies based on audits started last year.

“In addition, the Court also plans to audit the new Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism for the first time as well as to start work on assessing the first five years in operation of the European Semester.”

The commission’s energy and climate change programmes also remain a priority.

Caldeira said the court cannot audit and report on everything and therefore needed to be guided by priorities over a two to three-year period.

“Each year we update our priorities based on a review of EU developments and our understanding of our stakeholders’ needs,” he said.

“For this year’s work programme, we benefited from a greater level of understanding than ever before with the committees of the Parliament.”

The ECA’s complete work programme for 2016 can be viewed here.