Case C-255/01

Panagiotis Markopoulos and Others

v

Ypourgos Anaptyxis and Soma Orkoton Elegkton

(Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Smvoulio tis Epikratiias)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Eighth Directive 84/253/EEC – Articles 11 and 15 – Approval of persons responsible for statutory auditing of accounting documents – Possibility of approving persons who have not passed an examination of professional competence – Conditions on which nationals of other Member States may be approved)

Summary of the Judgment

1. Freedom of movement for persons – Freedom of establishment – Companies – Directive 84/253 – Approval of persons responsible for statutory auditing of accounting documents – Transitional provisions – Approval of certain categories of professionals without examination of professional competence (Article 15) – Conditions – Time-limit for the exercise of such a power of approval

(Council Directive 84/253, Art. 15)

2. Freedom of movement for persons – Freedom of establishment – Companies – Directive 84/253 – Approval of persons responsible for statutory auditing of accounting documents – Approval of persons having obtained all or part of their qualifications in another Member State (Article 11) – Conditions

(Council Directive 84/253, Art. 11)

1. Article 15 of Eighth Council Directive 84/253, based on Article 54(3)(g) of the EEC Treaty, on the approval of persons responsible for carrying out the statutory audits of accounting documents, permits all the Member States to approve persons who satisfy the conditions laid down in that article, namely persons who have the qualifications in the Member State concerned to carry out the statutory auditing of the documents referred to in Article 1(1) and who did so for up to a year following the date of application of the national provisions transposing the Eighth Directive, without their being required first to have passed an examination of professional competence, and without its being necessary to consider whether or to what extent the national rules before the adoption of the directive laid down a requirement for a particular class of persons to have passed an examination.

Nevertheless, it is contrary to Article 15 for a Member State to exercise the power provided for therein after the expiry of a period of a year starting to run from the date of application of the national provisions transposing the directive, which date may in no circumstances fall after 1 January 1990.

(see paras 35, 37, 44, 52-53, operative part 1)

2. Article 11 of Eighth Directive 84/253, based on Article 54(3)(g) of the EEC Treaty, on the approval of persons responsible for carrying out the statutory audit of accounting documents, enables a host Member State to approve, for the purpose of carrying out the statutory auditing of accounting documents, professional persons already approved in another Member State, without requiring them to pass an examination of professional competence, if the competent authorities of the host Member State consider their qualifications to be equivalent to those required under the national legislation of the host Member State, in accordance with the directive.

In the absence of specific provisions to regulate the assessment of equivalence, it falls to the competent authorities to carry out that assessment, observing the obligations imposed on the Member States by the rules of the Treaty and, in particular, the rules on freedom of establishment.

(see paras 62, 67, operative part 2)