EU perspective on global accounting standards

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16 Oct, 2012

At a recent joint conference held by the EFRAG and the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation, prominent European speakers held a roundtable discussion on the European Union’s perspective on the move towards global accounting standards.

The speakers discussed the current state of adoption of IFRS in Europe. Currently, more than two thirds of the G20 countries have adopted IFRS. The goal of the European Union is to adopt all IFRS issued by the IASB, provided that they are acceptable to and met the needs of European constituents. To meet this goal, views from the EU should be consolidated into ‘one message’ and expressed early in the standard setting process.

Also discussed at the conference were the financial reporting developments in the US. Specifically, representatives from the European Commission expressed their disappointment and frustration regarding the outcome from the SEC staff paper regarding US adoption of IFRS. The lack of a decision in the SEC staff paper was perceived as a negative outcome and has caused a slow down on global convergence efforts. The European Commission has label 2013 as the ‘year of truth’ regarding globalisation of IFRS and convergence.

Prominent speakers at the conference included Nadia Calviño, Deputy Director General, European Commission Directorate General Internal Market and Services; Françoise Flores, EFRAG Chairman; Hans Hoogervorst, Chairman of the IASB; Sven Hayn, Ernst & Young; Wolf Klinz, MEP; Elisabetta Magistretti, non-executive independent Director in listed Italian companies and Peter Malmqvist, Board member of the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies.

The press release on this conference is available on the EFRAG website.

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