The Commission has promoted a strategy based on a principles-based approach to financial reporting, designed to reflect economic reality and give a true and fair view of the financial position and the performance of a company. At the heart of our strategy is the application, from 1 January 2005, of International Accounting Standards. I remain firmly committed to this strategy.... Nonetheless, as regards adoption and application of IAS a few stubborn issues remain to be resolved: in particular hedging of core deposits in the context of IAS 39 and the so-called 'insurance mismatch'. A European Consultative Group was recently set up to address these issues. Personally, I am still convinced that acceptable temporary solutions can be found in the short term, pending longer term work by the IASB. I have urged Sir David Tweedie to continue working in the short term with technical experts - around the clock if necessary - to try to find such appropriate solutions. One of the problems we have, unfortunately, is a lack of trust between the interested parties. Due process has not been optimal so far and must improve in future.