Last Friday saw five new members of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) make their solemn undertaking before the judges of the European Court of Justice, here in Luxembourg. They replace an equal number of members whose term of office expired at the end of last month. It seems like only yesterday that I, myself, participated in an analogous ceremony, but that was almost two years ago.

The ECA is composed of one member from each EU member state and all serve a six-year term. The latest newcomers to the court are from Belgium, Italy, Finland, Spain and Sweden. They have quite diverse backgrounds; the common denominator is that they have all occupied prestigious posts of high responsibility in their respective countries.

One of the new members was the president of a section of the Court of Auditors in his country and also served as a Constitutional Court judge. One was the governor of his country's central bank. Another was a Member of the European Parliament and a government minister. The other two were members of their respective national parliaments and chaired the finance and budget committees.

As I had the opportunity to remark just after taking the same 'oath of office' as a member of the ECA, the ceremony is a very simple one but, nevertheless, tangibly inspiring. Not only because it involves taking over new responsibilities but, even more so, because it entails a break with your past so as to assume a very specific role within the EU framework, one which is no longer attached to your home country.

This consideration was amply reflected in the speeches made during the ceremony by Judge Vassilios Skouris, president of the European Court of Justice and by Hubert Weber, president of the ECA who emphasised the commitment, specified within the undertaking made by all members of the ECA "to serve the European Union in the general interest of the Union and in complete independence".

Mr Weber referred to the stringent nomination process for the members of the ECA, which involves the individual member state governments and includes a public hearing in front of the Committee on Budgetary Control of the European Parliament, followed by a vote at a plenary session of the European Parliament, before the formal appointment by the Council of the European Union.

In Mr Weber's words, this comprehensive, democratic appointment procedure, culminating in last Friday's swearing-in ceremony, is an "expression of the concern for the independence of the EU's external audit institution". This is essential for the proper execution of the critical function that the ECA has to perform as the external auditor of the EU.

The arrival of five new members, or more precisely the departure of their predecessors, has also required a reshuffle in the distribution of duties within the ECA. This has not affected all members to the same extent but it has had a profound impact in my particular case, since I now cover a different portfolio from the one I was responsible for until last week.

The ECA is a collegiate body, which means that all members are collectively responsible for all decisions taken by the court. However, for practical purposes, the responsibilities of the court are partitioned under different subject areas and the members of the court are organised within audit groups, each such group being linked to a particular subject area that it is expected to follow in detail.

In actual fact the court operates on the basis of four audit groups, covering agriculture; structural measures and internal policies; external aid; and administrative expenditure, respectively, and an additional so-called 'horizontal' group that covers a broader function, of relevance to the court as a whole.

When I joined the ECA in May 2004 I was assigned to the Structural Funds and Internal Policies Audit Group, with particular responsibility for the audit of expenditure under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). As from last week, however, I am now part of the 'horizontal' group with specific responsibility for the court's annual "Statement of Assurance", that is universally referred to by its French acronym DAS (Declaration d'Assurance).

The DAS represents the formal opinion of the ECA on the reliability of the EU's accounts and on the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The DAS is derived on the basis of detailed financial compliance audits carried out by ECA personnel in the 12 months preceding the publication of the court's annual report within which it is the first and arguably the most important chapter.

The main objectives of the DAS are to establish: (a) whether the consolidated financial statements of the general budget of the European Union, as drawn up by the Commission, present a true and fair picture of the financial activities through the preceding year and of the year-end situation; and (b) whether legal and contractual provisions have been duly respected during the implementation of the budget. The DAS can be said to represent the principal deposition for citation by the European Parliament and Council in their deliberation on the closure of the EU accounts, more commonly referred to as the budget discharge process.

To understand better the concept of this Statement of Assurance, it can be said to be quite similar in scope to the opinion formulated by an independent, external audit firm in conjunction with, and in support of, the publication of the annual accounts of a listed private sector company. In the private sector example, the opinion of the external auditor is required and published to safeguard the interests of the company's shareholders. The DAS is published for reference by the European Parliament and Council, in the interest of all EU citizens.

Much of the ECA's ongoing work feeds into the DAS and, in my previous duties within the Structural Funds Audit Group, I was already involved in the supervision of those audits specifically concerning ERDF expenditure, which were subsequently used by the court in the derivation of the overall Statement of Assurance. However, my new role goes well beyond that. It is the responsibility of the DAS section to sustain the overall framework within which these various financial audits are carried out, to provide the mechanism that permits their eventual consolidation and to implement the process that translates them into an overall opinion.

Fortunately, I can count on some relevant insight. Last year I was appointed by the court to form part of a three-member project team that was asked to review the procedures to be followed in the formulation of the DAS. This project team produced a report proposing a number of important changes within the relevant approach to the DAS. These changes have since been approved by the ECA and it will now be my responsibility to implement them in practice, as the new 'DAS member'.

The task will not be a simple one because it coincides with a number of quite significant changes that the Commission is implementing in its move to an accrual based accounting system, which changes should be of significant benefit in the long run but which might introduce an additional element of complexity during the immediate, transitional period.

What gives me great confidence in my new task is the knowledge I will be able to count on some very professional, hard working and extremely well-led staff who have already given ample proof, within the ECA, of their capacity to deliver quality results under situations of considerable and prolonged pressure.