The Audit Committee, notwithstanding the responsibilities of the Supervisory Board as a whole, is responsible for the preparation of the decisions made by the Supervisory Board concerning the adoption of the financial statements and the approval of the consolidated financial statements, by conducting a preliminary review of the financial statements, the dependency report and consolidated financial statements, the management report and the consolidated management report, reviewing the proposal for the appropriation of the profits, discussing the audit report with the auditor and by monitoring the financial reporting process and the statutory audit, in particular the independence of the auditor, the monitoring of the effectiveness of the Risk Management System, the Internal Control System (ICS), the Compliance Management System as well as the Internal Audit System.