Results, or no results – that is the key question! The European Court of Auditors (ECA) carries out three types of audit on EU policies and spending programmes: financial, compliance and performance audits. Each of them has different objectives, addresses different audit questions and applies different methodologies. This course is about the ambition of the EU to be more results-oriented in the current programming period 2021–2027 using a framework where performance and results are the keywords.

This highly practical course presents all aspects of each stage of the performance audit process. It includes the unique feature of providing an insight into how the European Court of Auditors plan, prepare and implement their audit assignments, covering real-life audit case studies and experiences of the Court’s teams.

It explains how performance will be measured during the 2021–2027 period, has some unique features and insights with regard to the analysis of costs and benefits, and explains in detail the audit methodologies and tools used. It also demonstrates the strength of key performance indicators, and how to use them. The new aspect is that, when applying for this course, you will be given the opportunity to choose your preferred case study to work on from a broad range of different audits proposed by the Court’s team.

What will you learn

After the presentation of each stage of a performance audit, you will work on real-life case studies in small working groups with direct involvement and guidance from the key experts from the European Court of Auditors. This will enable you to learn how to carry out a performance audit yourself in your institution.