These objectives are as follows:

• Develop a "single rule book for the regulation of financial markets in the European Union".
• Establish a "consistent supervisory framework for financial markets in Europe".

Mr Maijoor also noted that these two objectives are equally important, and he discussed the resource constraints and future funding of the ESMA. Click for the full speech of Mr Maijoor (PDF 191k, link to ESMA website).

The topics discussed were as follows (click through to detailed Deloitte observer notes for that topic):

Tuesday 13 March 2012

• Active Committee projects
  • IAS 37 Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets and IFRIC 6 Liabilities arising from Participating in a Specific Market—Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment — Levies charged for participation in a specific market — date of recognition of liability
• Items for continuing consideration
  • IFRIC 12 Service Concession Arrangements — Payments made by an operator in a service concession arrangement
  • IFRS 11 Joint Arrangements — Acquisition of interest in joint operation
  • IAS 28 Investments in Associates — Application of the equity method when an associate's equity changes outside of comprehensive income
  • IAS 16 Property, Plant and Equipment and IAS 38 Intangible Assets — Revenue-based depreciation method
  • IAS 7 Statement of Cash Flows — Review of requests in relation to IAS 7

Wednesday 14 March 2012

• New items for initial consideration
  • IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements and IAS 12 Income Taxes — Presentation of payments of non-income taxes
  • IAS 12 Income Taxes — Accounting for market value uplifts on assets that are to be introduced by a new tax regime
  • IAS 16 Property, Plant and Equipment, IAS 38 Intangible Assets and IAS 17 Leases — Purchase of a right to use land
  • IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement and IFRS 9 Financial Instruments — Term-extending options in fixed rate debt instruments
  • IAS 27 Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements and SIC 13 Jointly Controlled Entities — Non-Monetary Contributions by Venturers — Definition of the term 'non-monetary asset'
• Administrative session

Click here to go to the preliminary and unofficial notes taken by Deloitte observers for the entire meeting.

The meeting is designed to gather feedback from users in Italy and neighboring countries on the topics developed in the discussion papers. The feedback will then be used by the EFRAG, OIC and the ASB in future work with the IASB that relates to income taxes and business combinations under common control. Registration is requested by 30 March 2012.

Click for EFRAG press release (link to EFRAG website).

The IASB and European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) have issued a press release on their joint meeting held on 9 March 2012 to discuss the status of ongoing projects and other topics. These meetings take place on a regular basis and are used to discuss European ideas and input into projects on the IASB's agenda. In addition to representatives from EFRAG, four European standard-setters were represented: France, Germany, Italy and the UK. The topics discussed were:

• Insurance contracts
• Leases
• Financial instruments
• Revenue recognition
• ESMA paper on 'materiality'
• EFRAG's forthcoming discussion paper on the Disclosure Framework
• The potential for coordination on research projects, the due process for the IASB's forthcoming post-implementation reviews and how user outreach can be coordinated

Click for:

• Joint press release (link to IASB website)
• EFRAG's summary of main messages expressed by the EFRAG delegation (PDF 174k, link to EFRAG website)

In the comment letter, we express our agreement with the decision by the IASB and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board to re-expose the revenue proposals. However, we continue to disagree with some of the proposals in the current ED.

Click for:

• A full summary and our comment letter on revenue from contracts exposure draft
• The first issue in our Deloitte Point of View series, summarizing Deloitte's perspective on the revenue project

It also adds an exception to the retrospective application of IFRS, which provides the same relief to first-time adopters granted to existing preparers of IFRS financial statements when the requirement was incorporated into IAS 20 in 2008. Entities are required to apply these amendments for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2013. Earlier application is permitted.

Click for:

• IASB Press Release (link to IASB website)
• Our project page for the IFRS 1 amendment

You can access the agenda on our March 2012 IASB meeting page.  We will also post Deloitte observer notes on this page as they are available.