On the subject of international accounting standards, our goal is clearly convergence. The IASB has grown in stature and credibility, and its International Financial Reporting Standards ('IFRS') will become mandatory in the EU in 2005. Our Chief Accountant, Don Nicolaisen, tells me that his staff is spending a lot of time gearing up on IFRS and that all the large accounting firms are developing IFRS training programs in anticipation of the 2005 goal.

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.

• On 1 March 2004 we posted the new IAS 16 module.
• All modules are now based on the final IASs as revised in the Improvements Project (modules affected are IASs 1, 2, 8, 17, 21, 27, 28, 31, and 40)
• Next modules due for release (planned for the end of March 2004) are IAS 7 and IAS 10