What are the implications of the current legislation for cost effectiveness and quality control in Structural Fund spending? What role for performance auditing?

The EU policy on economic and social cohesion represents one third of the total EU budget in the Financial Perspectives 2007-2013. The concomitant result of the enlargement on 1 May 2004 is that regional disparities have doubled. The purpose of the study is to evaluate cost-effectiveness of actions in different Member States, by analysing their value-for-money aspect, sustainability and long-term benefits, taking into account their control mechanisms and audit effectiveness. The study concludes that it is more efficient if audit focuses on compliance rather than on performance, and that the current programming period has witnessed a substantial increase in the audit effort. Furthermore, the benefits of audit in terms of identifying and preventing irregularities have been recognized, together with the need for stronger cooperation and coordination between different audit levels in the future.