EU President Barroso speaks on EU/US convergence

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28 Apr 2007

In a speech at the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, discussed transatlantic relations and next week's EU-US Summit in Washington.

Mr Barroso spoke of the need to address existing, unnecessary barriers posed by divergent regulations and to avoid the emergence of new ones. He referred specifically to Transatlantic accounting and auditing issues:

It is my hope that by 2009, we will jointly be in a position to recognise the equivalence of accounting standards between the EU and US. This will reduce costs and make it easier for companies to list themselves wherever they see fit.

It is my hope the EU and the US will quickly reach a point where we can rely on each other's auditing oversights' systems and avoid burdensome and costly duplicative work and even conflicts of law.

It is my hope that we will be able to look closely at how we regulate securities' markets in the EU and the US. We share the same goals: adequate investor protection and market integrity. If we find that these goals are effectively met on both sides of the Atlantic, we should reflect on the conditions that could allow the mutual recognition of our rules.

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