Commissioner McCreevy – benefits of global standards

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09 Jul 2007

In a presentation titled (PDF 79k) before the International Corporate Governance Network, Charlie McCreevy, the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, spoke about the benefits that high quality international standards can bring to the world's capital markets.

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I firmly believe in international competition and open markets. I have always been very firm with Member States and national regulators when protectionist tendencies spring up. It is the same for third countries. Protectionism is for 20th century historians, not for 21st century regulators.

One of our key objectives has been to promote international standards. Carefully crafted, they are a powerful tool to extract the best from globalisation. Take, for example, IFRS accounting standards. Soon we hope that they will be accepted in every significant financial centre: the EU of course, US, China and Japan. One set of accounting rules for those companies who wish to list in the world's best financial markets. Is this not the right mix between competition, efficiency and regulation?

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