This year’s edition of the Audit Compendium addresses challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is behind one of the most disruptive health crises the world has ever seen, with a major impact on society, economies and individuals everywhere. It provides information on the impact of and the response to the pandemic at national and supranational level, and gives an overview of the pertinent audit work carried out and published in 2020 by eleven EU supreme audit institutions.

This year’s Audit Compendium is dedicated to cybersecurity, a topic which was already critical for our societies before COVID-19 hit. It provides background information on cybersecurity, main strategic initiatives and relevant legal bases in the EU. It also illustrates the main challenges the EU and its Member States are facing, such as threats to individual EU citizens´ rights through misuse of personal data, the risk for institutions of not being able to deliver essential public services or facing limited performance following cyberattacks. The Compendium draws on the results of audits carried out by 13 SAIs.

The Compendium provides some background information on public health, its legal bases, main objectives and related responsibilities at Member State and EU levels. The Compendium also illustrates the main challenges the EU and its Member States are facing in this field. Public health is a complex area to audit. Nevertheless, the large number of audits carried out in recent years reflects the great significance of this domain for EU citizens.

The Contact Committee (CC) issues with the Audit Compendium a new type of publication, meant to enhance the communication of relevant audit messages to its stakeholders and the broader public. This first edition is dedicated to the highly topical issue of youth unemployment and the integration of young people into the labour market. It is based on audit reports produced by 14 CC members between 2013 and 2017.
Youth unemployment stands at the top of the agendas of most EU Member States and of the European Institutions. In 2016, over 4 million young Europeans could not find work and the proportion facing long-term unemployment remains high. The CC members aim to ensure at national and supra-national level that the funds used to combat youth unemployment are used effectively.
The compendium is available in 24 EU languages on this website.