Kansainväliset tilinpäätösstandardit (keskustelu)
12.11.2007
Mr President, the importance of appropriate accounting standards cannot be exaggerated. In today???s world there is a growing need for clear, comparable and sufficient information for investors as well as facilitating business by reducing compliance costs.
Therefore, I agree with my colleagues on the importance of prudence in the question. Decisions should not be taken lightly, and I really think that the views of all colleagues who have mentioned timely impact assessment as an important tool to find balanced solutions and make sure that all stakeholders and their opinions are considered are very important.
Parliament should, of course, be kept duly informed. Of equal importance is to ensure that the EASB governance system is reviewed and adjusted so that regulatory authorities can support its standard-setting process and its result. It is, after all, the only body we have to do a cross-border account standards setting process.
However, while the process has not been perfect, we must not let this delay our work to close the gap between us and our economic partners. Today???s world is much more interconnected, and it is in our interest to make it function as smoothly as possible, and compatible standards are vital to this end.
Within the Transatlantic Economic Council, both sides are eager to make this work, and IFRS standards and financial reports are an important tool to find this mutual recognition of standards.
For now, the IASB is the best way we have. European stakeholders must be involved and the functioning of the IFRS should be monitored. It can and should also be changed to correct possible mistakes, if we make mistakes. Democracy, of course, takes time but sometimes it is needed to correct mistakes. Many of my colleagues have mentioned that it was very important that Parliament was able to raise some concerns and make improvements to the process. |
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