Statutory auditor in EU
What this register publishes today, what is missing, and the smallest change that would move it up.
What was found
This row is a legal floor rather than one authority, and it is the strongest evidence in the index that the ask is not unreasonable. Since 2006, and operational across the union since June 2009, every member state must enter approved auditors and audit firms in a public register. The directive goes further than most national registers manage on their own: each auditor and firm must be identified by an individual number, registration information must be stored electronically and be electronically accessible to the public, the register must be updated without undue delay after notification, third-country auditors must be flagged as such rather than shown as statutory auditors, and sanctions must be disclosed publicly with withdrawal of approval among them. The stated reason, in the recitals, is to protect third parties. The directive even contemplates electronic signatures, but on the information the auditor submits to the authority, not on what the authority publishes. One trade, twenty-seven countries, tiers A and B of RVW-5 in all but the signature, legislated seventeen years before this lab wrote them down.
What it publishes
| Check | Answer | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| A public page per licence | Yes | Gives a reader something to look at and a checker something to archive and attest against. |
| A bulk export | No | Lets a consumer hold the whole list instead of fetching one licence at a time, and lets anyone hash it. |
| Machine readable | Mandated | A CSV or JSON rather than a page built for a browser. Decides whether checking can be automated at all. |
| Signed | No | Makes the file impossible to forge or mirror convincingly. Nothing reaches grade A without it. |
The next step
Export the list
A page per licence is already most of the work. What is missing is the same data as one file, at a stable address, refreshed on whatever cadence the register already runs. That is tier A of RVW-5 and it moves this row to grade B.
A grade describes a register, not the authority behind it and not the quality of its supervision. An authority can run an excellent register and still sit at grade D because it is a search form.
If this row is wrong, it gets corrected with the correction published beside it. The index is useful only if it can be argued with. Tell the lab.