It can be seen as the European Union's internal "political watchdog", seeking to identify undesirable developments within EU institutions and other bodies and then to elaborate constructive suggestions for improvement.
In close cooperation with the Court of Auditors, it audits the accounts of EU institutions and suggests improvements in order to ensure sound financial management.
It considers fraud and irregularities in the budget implementation, and suggests measures aimed at preventing and prosecuting such cases.
During this procedure it scrutinises the implementation of the EU budget by all actors involved, i.e. inter alia the commission, Parliament, other institutions and agencies, on the basis of the yearly annual report of the European Court of Auditors.
The parliamentarians then transmit detailed questions about the activities and the performance of the respective proceeding working year (x, e.g. 2011).