After Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia entered the Schengen Area, they are obliged to protect the border in an appropriate manner, as set out in the European Union Treaty and the Schengen Agreement. So they are responsible for protecting European Union Member States from infectious animal diseases that may come from outside the EU’s eastern border and threaten the epizootic safety of the Community. The Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia check whether their states meet this duty properly.
Representatives of the three SAIs met at the end of September in Vilnius to discuss the progress in the parallel audit they have been conducting. Audit proceedings have been already completed in Poland and in Slovakia, while auditors from the Lithuanian SAI have been still working on the audit. The participants in the meeting in Vilnius discussed the results of their audits and agreed on further works. The results of the three audits will be included in the joint audit report to be signed by the Heads of the three SAIs on 14 December 2010 in Warsaw at the NIK.
