ICAEW letter to Commissioner Bolkestein re IAS 39
15 Aug 2004
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has written to EC Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein urging the European Commission to adopt IAS 39 in its entirety as part of the full suite of International Financial Reporting Standards for use in Europe.
We understand that the Commission is considering deleting certain sections of lAS 39 and proposing the amended standard for endorsement. We are greatly concerned by this development. Introducing differences between IFRS in Europe and IFRS, as set by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), is likely to lead to long-term damage to the credibility and quality of financial reporting in Europe. We note that the idea of European financial reporting standards is rejected in the IAS Regulation (No. 1606/2002) itself: Recital 2 states that '... it is important that the financial reporting standards applied by Community companies participating in financial markets are accepted internationally and are truly global standards.' |