The EU and US have begun discussions with the aim of recognising each other’s systems for regulating and inspecting auditors by 2009, following an agreement reached by EU internal market and services commissioner, Charlie McCreevy and the chairman of the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Mark Olson.
The 2006 directive on statutory audit obliges EU member states to register and oversee third-county auditors. US auditors could face multiple registrations and public oversight in several EU countries. To reduce the potential burdens on firms the directive allows the European Commission to recognise third-country oversight as equivalent throughout the EU.
The Commission can also accept the equivalence of US independence requirements and auditing standards so firms would not have to adapt to domestic rules in the EU members states. Commissioner McCreevy said that equivalence did not require systems to be identical but simply to be robust enough to ensure investor confidence.
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