WRITTEN QUESTION E-3189/00

by Paul Rübig (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(12 October 2000)

Subject: Developments with regard to the Accounting Directives

With a view to the completion of the internal market in securities, the Commission has made provision for coming into line with the internationalisation of accounting legislation and for modernising the Accounting Directives (COM(2000) 359 final, 13.6.2000.

Distortions of competition now exist, with businesses from the EU Member States being required to produce annual disclosures, while comparable companies in the US do not have to do so since over there the disclosure requirement only covers undertakings which raise funds on the capital market and not when a company's assets alone are available to cover creditors' claims (see USA Haller/Raffournier/Walton (ed.), Corporate Disclosure in International Competition, Stuttgart 2000, 177 et seq.).

Does the Commission intend that in future the requirements for annual disclosure and audit of annual accounts should only cover businesses which are also subject in the US to disclosure and annual audit requirements or which raise funds for corporate financing on the capital market?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(6 November 2000)

Accounting, auditing and disclosure rules within the Community are embedded in company law, unlike in the United States. In order to inform shareholders and employees but also to protect creditors and third parties dealing with limited liability companies, these companies are required to prepare financial statements, to have these financial statements audited by a qualified professional and to have the financial statements published by filing them with a register. The accounting directives(1) which contain those rules do however provide for exemptions from full disclosure for small and medium-sized companies. Medium-sized companies may also be exempted from the audit requirement.

Although the accounting, auditing and disclosure rules in the United States aim primarily at those companies which obtain capital from capital markets, most important companies would in practice still be required to prepare financial statements, to have those financial statements audited by a qualified professional and to make those financial statements available to all interested parties through private information providers.

The Commission's communication The EU's Financial Reporting Strategy: The Way Forward(2) aims at ensuring that all listed Community companies follow a uniform financial reporting system that guarantees a high level of transparency and comparability by requiring them to prepare their consolidated accounts in conformity with international accounting standards (IAS) at the latest by 2005. Member States may extend this requirement also to unlisted companies and to annual accounts.

The communication also provides for a modernisation of the accounting directives. In this context, the Commission will examine to what extent existing requirements still satisfy present needs.

(1) Fourth Council Directive 78/660/EEC of 25 July 1978 on the annual accounts of certain types of companies (OJ L 222, 14.8.1978) and Seventh Council Directive (83/349/EEC) of 13 June 1983 on consolidated accounts (OJ L 193, 18.7.1983).

(2) COM(2000) 359 final.