EUROSAI Seminar: SAIs, Artificial Intelligence and Ethics (Lisbon, 17.10.2025)
On October 17, 2025, a seminar entitled "SAIs, Artificial Intelligence and Ethics" was held in Lisbon. It was organized by the EUROSAI Network for Ethics, chaired by the State Audit Office of the Republic of Croatia and the Portuguese Court of Auditors.
The seminar was attended by sixty participants from 16 Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) members of EUROSAI, the European Court of Auditors and the Portuguese National Anti-Corruption Mechanism (MENAC).The aim of the seminar was to introduce the participants:
- to opportunities, challenges and ethical implications regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) within the mandate and tasks of SAIs
- to updated ethics-related information relevant to the work of SAIs and
- the progress and good practice of SAIs in the management of ethics, as well as the doubts that accompany it.
After the President of the Portuguese Court of Auditors, the Auditor General of the Republic of Croatia, and the President of EUROSAI (President of the SAI Israel) introduced the participants to the seminar, keynote speeches were held on the importance of ethics in the application of AI in external (state) audit and the relationship between AI and democracy with the SAI as one of its main pillars. Speeches given by distinguished professors from the Universities of Lisbon and Vienna were followed by an interesting debate.
The European Court of Auditors presented the case i.e. results of the audit EU AI Ambition, while representatives of the SAIs of Croatia and BiH introduced the participants to the results of thematic researches on the use of AI tools in SAIs, the ethics of their application, and the related needs and perspectives for potential projects or the launch of related new activities. The second part of the seminar began with a panel on cooperation between SAIs and anti-corruption bodies, in which a representative of UNODC and the President of MENAC participated with inspiring presentations.
As part of the event, a discussion in smaller groups was held on the possible need to update the ethical framework and practices of SAIs, followed by the final group of presentations in which the SAIs of Belgium, France, Georgia, Montenegro, the Netherlands and Portugal shared their SAIs’ experiences and news on their ethical frameworks and other news, views and challenges related to the topic of the seminar.
