ECOFIN, European Parliament discuss the proposed IAS regulation
20 Dec 2001
ECOFIN, the European Council of Finance Ministers, met on 13 December 2001 and agreed a 'general orientation' on a proposed Regulation that would require all EU listed companies, including banks and insurance companies, to prepare their consolidated financial statements using IAS.
The International Accounting Standards Regulation will introduce a new era of transparency and put an end to the current Tower of Babel in financial reporting. It will help European firms to compete on equal terms when raising capital on world markets and allow investors and other stakeholders to compare companies' performance against a common standard. However, I regret the Ministers' decision to grant some big companies the right to apply US GAAP standards until 2007, two years after the Lisbon deadline for completing the Internal Market in financial services. |