European Parliament overwhelmingly adopts IAS resolution
13 Mar 2002
By a vote of 492 for, 5 against, and 29 abstentions, on 12 March 2002 the European Parliament endorsed the Commission's proposal that all EU listed companies must follow standards issued by the International Accounting Standards Board in their consolidated financial statements starting no later than 2005. Companies preparing for listing would not be required to follow IAS.
Member States are permitted to decide whether non-listed companies must also follow IAS. Member States also have the option to exempt certain companies temporarily from the IAS requirement – but only until 2007 – in two cases: (1) companies that are listed both in the EU and on a non-EU exchange and that follow another set of internationally accepted standards as the primary basis of their consolidated financial statements and (2) companies that have only publicly traded debt securities. The first exemption would apply mainly to European companies listed in the US that currently use US GAAP for their primary financial statements. Click for (PDF 189k).