Enforcement of IFRS in Europe
17 Jul 2003
In a presentation on How Accountants Fit in Creating a Single Capital Market (PDF 44k) delivered at the annual meeting of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, Michel Petite, the EC's Director-General of Legal Service, reviewed the issues that the EU is facing in ensuring rigorous enforcement of IFRS throughout Europe, including the 10 new countries that will join the EU on 1 May 2004. Financial reporting standards require that all the members of the Enlarged EU have in place the appropriate institutional oversight for their enforcement.
But the current structure of enforcement varies widely between member states. . . . In some member states, securities regulators are the accounting enforcers (like in France and Italy); in others, that function is exercised by a review panel (like in the UK with the Financial Reporting Review Panel); in others stock exchanges have some responsibility in this respect.