ABSTRACT
This chapter establishes a link between financial accountability, systemic legitimacy and overall democratic legitimacy. It provides an overview of the legal framework of financial management, instrumental to highlighting the extent to which its dynamics (actors, rules, processes) depart from the balance in the decision-making stage. The chapter focuses on the technical dimension of the financial accountability and the intervention of the European Court of Auditors. It examines the contribution of the discharge procedure to the democratic accountability of European Union (EU) foreign policy. Following Bovens, accountability involves three features: self-justification, scrutiny and proscription of impunity. The chapter assesses these features as applied in the case of EU external policies, using the financial accountability lens to approach systemic legitimacy. It shows that the EU external policies are financially implemented in a challenging environment where complex management methods, policy instruments and a variety of managers are involved.
