EC Commissioner comments on accounting issues

  • European Union (old) Image

24 Nov 2006

In a presentation titled Rewarding Excellence in Legibility of Accounts: Meeting the IFRS Challenge, Charlie McCreevy, the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, commented on a number of IFRS-related issues:

  • Readbility. "IFRS aim to give increased transparency in accounts. But this must not be at the expense of legibility. Preparers have been grappling with the novelties of IFRS. Companies and investors will take some time to absorb and digest them. That is why I have repeatedly said we need a period of relative stability to let the new standards bed down."
  • Information overload. "The world's biggest accounting firms have recently joined forces to call for a radical overhaul of how companies report. They have called, in particular, for two changes. The first is that there should be a move to real-time, internet-based accounting, instead of quarterly statements. The second is that more non-financial information should be provided to give a fuller picture of companies' performance. The accounting firms are right to provoke a debate. But I wonder whether a flood of information is really the answer. Of course, we must make use of new technological tools. Yet often the real problem in the digital age is how best to sift the mass of information that is available. How to find the needle in the haystack. Too much information may mean many investors will have to rely more heavily on professional analysts. In fact, I have to tell you that I am very glad we didn't go for quarterly reporting in Europe."
  • IFRS for SMEs. "The Commission is working to identify areas of EU accounting and company law which can be simplified for SMEs. Important work on SME accounting is also going on at the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). I have already made clear to that board that if this work is to be useful, it must be kept simple. This is the clear test that I will apply in determining whether it is worthwhile making use of the results of the IASB's work at EU level."

Click for Full Presentation (PDF 72k).

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