This publication highlights how differently 30 European countries have organised and carry out public audit oversight following the 2014 European Union (EU) audit legislation. Different national oversight regimes and approaches may lead to inconsistent application of the statutory audit rules and inconsistencies in audit quality across countries. These different regimes also lead to complexity, additional compliance costs and practical and operational difficulties for internationally operating audit firms. Therefore, we propose ways to streamline audit oversight regimes to create a level playing field in Europe.

With this paper, we aim to inform policymakers in the context of the European Commission’s ongoing initiative on corporate reporting.