Annemie Turtelboom

Wanneer heb je de laatste keer iets voor de eerste keer gedaan?
Huh, een berg opwandelen, in een tent slapen, overdag en s nachts uren wandelen, dagen zonder do**he, en zoveel meer.
Kilimanjaro it was.
1. en , ik kon me geen beter gezelschap inbeelden. Verwondering, gesakker, twijfel maar vooral trots toen we op de top stonden.
2. en zijn team. Altijd professioneel en super voorbereid. De steun, het lekker eten hoog boven de wolken (jawel!), de koffie om 6u s morgens! ik kon met geen beter team dit avontuur aangaan. Dank je wel .
3. Energiebars, gels, chewing gums, ….Essentiëler dan ik ooit dacht tijdens de urenlange wandelingen om energie bij te tanken.
4. Kilimanjaro, een besneeuwde top boven de savannes en het regenwoud. Een iconische, vrijstaande vulkaan in Tanzania. De hoogste berg van Afrika. Pure schoonheid.

Back in the 'classroom' (albeit this time at the ) this week for two visiting groups from

As always, it was a real pleasure to be able to introduce another generation of students to the workings of the EU budget, and the role of the Court as the guardian of the EU's finances. Many thanks to the students for their visit (and to , who led one of the groups) and for their interesting questions.

Swearing in at the Court of Justice back in 2018, at the beginning of my mandate at the European Court of Auditors.

That was the start of my time at , and seven years on, the ECA is passing a very special milestone. Today marks 50 years since the signing of the Treaty of Brussels (also known by the slightly drier name of the "Second Budgetary Treaty"), which established the ECA. The Court would open its doors in 1977, and has been working hard to safeguard the EU's finances ever since.

A very happy 50th birthday to the ECA! And a very important thank you, to all the staff, past and present, who have put the hours in to help the ECA meet the challenge of being the guardian of European taxpayers' money.

 

Photos: © European Union, 2025

June is almost here, and summer is starting to build up a bit of momentum – and we’re doing the same here at the

As well as our day-to-day work here at the Court, we have a busy schedule of discussions with stakeholders, student visits, internal and external events, and other activities, all to connect our findings and messages with the outside world, and to fulfil our role and responsibilities in the EU ecosystem.

A selection from May:

We welcomed their Royal Highnesses, Crown Prince Guillaume and Crown Princess Stéphanie, to the Court (Photos 1 & 2).

I discussed auditing transport infrastructure at the European Sea Ports Organisation Conference 2025 (Photo 3).

I joined the Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) on a fact-finding mission to Slovakia (Photo 4), where we paid our respects at the memorial for murdered journalists Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová (Photo 5).

We hosted Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra at the ECA, to hear the Commission’s upcoming plans around climate and clean industry, and taxation, and to discuss the ECA’s findings in these fields.

And the European Court of Auditors celebrated Europe Day at the Luxembourg celebrations in Echternach, where we connected with the public about what we do, and even gave out a few prizes to the clever people who were able to answer our quizzes correctly.

 

That's a wrap for May! Now onto June.

 

Photos: ECA own and/or Sophie Margue.

Yesterday, we welcomed their Royal Highnesses, Crown Prince Guillaume and Crown Princess Stéphanie, to the 

It was a pleasure to be able to host the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Luxembourg at the Court, and to be able to show them our work here, as well as what's on the Court's upcoming agenda.

Photos: ECA/ Sophie Margue

A very productive exchange of views today with  Vice-President Robert de Groot together with my colleague Stef Blok.

We discussed many of the challenges the EU is currently confronting, including industrial policy, finding the financing to meet an ever-increasing list of priorities, and the upcoming negotiations for the post-2027 budget.

Microchips - is the EU ready to compete in a global race?

We had a busy press conference this morning for our new European Court of Auditors 'Special report 12/2025 - The EU’s strategy for microchips', my latest as reporting member.

Europe once had a significant chunk of the global microchips industry, with a 20%+ share in the 1990s – however, it has now dwindled to around 10%.

 are the brains of modern systems, and are inseparable from every aspect of industrial policy - from cars to hospitals, planes to entertainment, and modern defence systems – nothing works without microchips. And demand for and our dependency on microchips is only going to increase, with AI, the digital transition, and new technological breakthroughs.
 
The EU   came into law in 2023, with a bundle of €43bn of policy-driven investments, matched by private funds for a figure of over €86bn.
It also came with a target – the EU Digital Decade target of 20 % by value of world production in cutting-edge and sustainable microchips by 2030.

Our report assessed whether EU industrial policy has supported Europe’s strategic autonomy in microchips. Our findings include:

·      The 20% target was overly ambitious, and we are not even close to being on track to meet it - the current projection is for a share of 11.7%.
·      We have fragmented competences - the bulk of the Chips Act funding comes from the member states and private actors, and the Commission does not have a full overview of that funding.
·      The EU microchips industry is still vulnerable to Europe’s general industrial weaknesses, such as energy prices, raw materials and tariffs and export bans.

We recommend that the Commission carry out a reality check on its strategy, and take any necessary short-term corrections. And that they quickly get to work on a new Chips strategy, that addresses the issues we have raised.

I would like to thank the team, and everyone involved in the report, for their work.

The report is now available on the ECA website, in the 24 official EU languages – read it there

Some photos from our International Women’s Day event, where I and my colleagues spoke about our experiences along our career paths, being women in what has typically been a male-dominated field, and what we learned from the challenges we faced along the way. Let’s not forget – no female member was appointed to the ECA until 1997, 20 years after the court’s inception.



And let’s also not forget:

The EU average for female membership in national parliaments is 33%.

Only 35% of management positions in the EU are held by women.

In terms of pay gaps, for individuals there is improvement in recent years. But if you go into the data, you see that for couples with children, there is a 26 percentage point pay gap between men and women. And that gap has actually increased since 2014.

I hope you all make the most of International Women’s Day, and let’s not forget that while improvements have occurred, “good enough” cannot be enough!

Photos: ECA

This morning at our current corridor exhibition at , "Paroles et Images d'Europe", a visual journey through some iconic Belgian comics. The exhibition was originally created in 1993, by Belgian members of the Commission's translation service, and collects some moments where Belgian comics and their characters took a visit to other European countries, as well as the cities of Belgium. You can see a few examples here from the likes of Hergé, André Franquin, Jan Bucquoy and Tito. A little journey around (an earlier version of) the EU, through the eyes of some of Belgium's greatest comic artists.

We’re still in mid-January, but we’ve already racked up a lot of trips to Brussels to discuss ECA work with our stakeholders.

This week – dropping in at the Belgian Senate to discuss three topics:

·      The ECA’s 2023 Annual Report
·      Special Report 03/ 2024 on the Rule of Law
·      ECA work, and findings, past and upcoming, on the RRF

Our work has no purpose if we don’t take it out into the world, and discussions with the political representatives of citizens are a vital part of that process. It also helps us take the pulse of what’s going on, and what’s on people’s minds, so we can better focus on the areas that really matter, and learn which of our findings are really resonating.

It’s always an honour to speak at a body like the Senate, and productive and positive discussions, like this one, always help us achieve our goals.

Photo: Belgische Senaat/ Le Sénat de Belgique

A pleasant change to our daily routine last week at , as we welcomed the children of the CPE Kirchberg educational daycare to present their artworks, on the subject of Gender Equality.

The kids are currently working on a project on the UN Sustainability Goals, and chose Gender Equality as the topic for a set of artworks.

As the ECA's Equality Ambassador, I was delighted to be able to welcome such a talented group to our institution, which they certainly brightened up with their work

Just back in Luxembourg after a whistle-stop tour of Brussels.

🚗 Presenting the ' Special Report on Road Safety to the Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN)

💧 Discussing the ECA's Special Report on Hydrogen Industrial Policy at the Sustainable Future Week

💶 Presenting the Special Report on Double Funding to the Parliament's Committees on Budgetary Control (CONT) and Budgets (BUDG)

The work doesn't stop once a report is published. It's important for the Court that we take our reports out into the world, to make sure our messages are being heard, and visits to stakeholders are part of that process.

Photo: Phillipe Buissin ©️ European Union 2024