Commission attacks forum for global accounting rules

Date: 20/01/2000

By Peter Chapman

ATTEMPTS to launch a world-wide set of accounting standards for firms listed on stock exchanges across the globe are under fire from European Commission experts, who claim small EU member states will be left without a say in how the vital norms are decided.

The introduction of a common regime is eagerly awaited both by big companies which grumble about the costs of filing accounts using often contradictory systems and investors who need to decipher the end result. Accepted international standards would simplify matters in markets such as the New York and London stock exchanges, where only accounts filed using local norms are allowed.

But senior aides to Single Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein say the new system for developing world accounting norms agreed by the board of the London-based International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) could make the US too dominant and weaken the EU's collective voice on key international accounting issues.

The IASC has decided to set up a board with six members from North America, six from Europe, four from the Asia Pacific and three from other parts of the world.

This board is set to be selected by a group of high-level 'trustees' including UK Financial Services Authority chairman Howard Davies, French Commission des Operations de Bourse chairman Michel Prada, World Bank President James Wolfesohn, and US Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt.

But the European Commission points out that it will not include any government officials. "It includes representatives of some European member states but these people do not represent their governments," said one official. "This is not unproblematic. In the end, IAS will only be applied seriously if governments decide to admit them in their national environment."

The official said that the Commission had suggested a different system under which the Union as a whole, rather than unrepresentative experts from a few dominant member states, would have had a say in developments.

"The new structure proposed by the IASC is beyond any doubt inspired by what exists in the US. The Commission, after consulting member states, had proposed an alternative," he said.

"I still believe that our proposal would have led to a better solution. It is also more in line with developments at international level, where more emphasis is now put on proper representation," he added, referring to the way international bodies such as the World Trade Organisation are run. "I think it is true to say that absence of a co-ordinated response to this new challenge has weakened the European position."

The move announced by the IASC comes as the Commission ponders the scope for greater use of international standards at Union level. It plans to unveil a paper later this year proposing changes to existing accountancy policy which could include calls for EU stock exchanges to allow firms to use international standards rather than national ones for some of their accounts.

Attempts to launch a world-wide set of accounting standards for firms listed on stock exchanges across the globe are under fire from European Commission experts, who claim small EU Member States will be left without a say in how the vital norms are decided.