The new rules will be in the form of a Directive amending the Statutory Audit Directive (Directive 2006/43/EC) (link to Europa website) and a Regulation on specific requirements regarding the statutory audit of public-interest entities (PIEs).  

Under the new rules, the societal role of auditors will be clarified, with the aim of increasing audit quality, transparency and audit supervision.  The new rules will require that audit reports be more detailed and informative and their work will be more closely monitored with strengthened audit committees.

Mandatory rotation of auditors for PIEs will be introduced, requiring such companies to retender at 10 years and change the auditor at least every 20 years. The reforms include a prohibition on the provision of certain non-audit services to PIE audit clients (including tax advice and services linked to the financial and investment strategy of the audit client) and also introduce a cap on the fees that can be earned from the provision of permitted non-audit services to PIEs.

Additionally the rules prohibit the use of restrictive clauses in contracts which limit a company’s choice of auditor in order to promote market diversity.

The Council has indicated that “the supervision of the system will be carried out within the framework of a Committee of European Auditing Oversight Bodies (CEAOB) with assistance from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)”.

The directive was already approved by the European Parliament on 3 April. Both the Directive and the Regulation will enter into force 20 days after their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.  The Directive must be adopted by EU member states within 2 years of that date and the Regulation is effective 2 years from that date.  The restriction on fee income from non-auditing services is to take effect within 3 years.

The Competition Commission (now taken over by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)), which has been delaying the release of their package of remedies to increase competition within the provision of statutory audit services to FTSE 350 companies in the UK is now likely to review their package in light of the EU announcement in order to consider the implications of the EU rules on their Orders which bring their measures into law.

Click for:

• Press release (link to Council's website)
• Full text of the directive (link to Council's website)
• Full text of the Regulation (link to Council's website).
• Our previous UK Accounting Plus news item on EU audit reform.