Effective audit oversight helps improve the quality of financial information, which is crucial to good governance and economic growth. 

This paper aims to assist European Union (EU) candidate and potential candidate countries, particularly in the Western Balkans, to establish effective oversight of corporate audit. It:

• summarizes relevant EU legislation,
• considers the impact of recent EU reforms,
• highlights recent developments relating to audit oversight,
• outlines the characteristics of EU public oversight systems (POS) in small, medium, and large countries,
• profiles the progress of establishing audit oversight in countries of the Western Balkans,
• highlights solutions to common challenges faced by audit oversight bodies (AOBs), and
• identifies the implications of these for aspiring EU Member States when establishing a POS as part of the alignment process.

It was prepared as a part of REPARIS for SMEs a regional program supporting six Western Balkan countries implemented by the World Bank Centre for Financial and Sustainability Reporting Reform (CFRR).