European Parliament urges cooperation on country-by-country reporting

While members of the unelected and unaccountable International Accounting Standards Board continue to prevaricate about country-by-country reporting, European Parliamentarians clearly see this as an important step forward for corporate transparency and governance. At its session on 22nd October 2009 the Parliament adopted the following resolution in an advance of the upcoming EU-USA summit and the Transatlantic Economic Council Meeting:

35. Urges the TEC to insist that the US authorities abide by their road map for requiring US domestic users to apply the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS); recalls its request that, until the US adopts the IFRS, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should recognise the IFRS, as adopted by the EU and until the decision requiring US users to apply the IFRS has been made, as being equivalent to the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the US (US GAAP); urges the TEC to promote the development of a country-by-country breakdown of reporting for multinational groups;

Country-by-country reporting is an idea whose time has come. IASB take note.