Paul Stephenson is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at Maastricht University, the Netherlands.María-Luisa Sánchez-Barrueco is Senior Lecturer in EU Law and Politics in the Transnational Law Department at the University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain.Hartmut Aden is Professor of German and European Public Law, Public Policy and Public Administration at the Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany.

• Introduction: Situating and contextualising financial accountability in the European Union PART I: Institutional Perspectives: Mandates and Powers 1. Financial Accountability in the Broader Framework of Accountability Studies 2. The Strategic Involvement of the European Parliament in Establishing the European Social Fund 3. Analysing the Origins of the ‘Statement of Assurance’: The European Court of Auditors after the Maastricht Treaty 4. On the Interplay between Good Administration and Sound Financial Management: The View from Strasbourg 5. Comparing the Audit Capacity of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in the Context of European Multilevel Governance (MLG) PART II: Policy Perspectives: Cohesion Policy and the Structural Funds 6. The Multiple Accountabilities of EU Cohesion Policy: Wicked problem or north star? 7. The Accountability of financial Instruments in EU Cohesion Policy: Lessons learnt from the European Court of Auditors 8. The Evolution of the Internal Control System for the Structural Funds: Between the European Commission and national authorities 9. Financial Accountability and the Quality of Performance in EU Cohesion Policy: The case of Italy 10. The Implementation and Accountability of EU Cohesion Policy in The Netherlands PART III: Perspectives from Practice: Financial Accountability Challenges 11. Communicating Financial Accountability in an Age of Disinformation: The results of a cross-national survey of supreme audit institutions (SAIs) 12. Delivering Value for Money? The problematic accountability of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) 13. Ensuring the Accountability of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) 14. Making Taxpayers’ Contributions to the EU Budget Visible: Towards greater transparency and legitimacy 15. Suspending EU Funds to Member States that Breach the Rule of Law: A new accountability mechanism? 16. Protecting EU Financial Interests through Criminal Law: The shortcomings of the PIF directive and repercussions for the functioning of the EPPO 17. Securing Impact from Audit: Budgetary scrutiny by the European Parliament and its use of findings by the European Court of Auditors

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