Audit Policy: On 1 July 2012, the Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee of the European Parliament considered its working document view regarding the European Commission’s proposals for a Directive, view and Regulation, view on statutory audit. The European Parliament’s Impact Assessment Unit presented its appraisal, analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the European Commission’s Impact Assessment. View

 

Accounting Directive: On 10 July 2012, the Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee of the European Parliament considered compromise amendments regarding the European Commission’s proposal for a Directive on annual financial statements. View To watch the meeting, click here. For the opinions of other committees (AFET, DEVE, INTA, ECON) and amendments please View.  

 

VAT: The European Commission has decided to set up a EU VAT Forum, a structured dialogue platform to improve the relationship between the Business and tax authorities. View On 3 July 2012 a call for applications for the selection of the members of the EU VAT Forum was published to which FEE will respond. View

Programme for the competitiveness of enterprises and SMEs, COSME 2014-2020: The Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee of the European Parliament has on 10 July 2012 adopted a draft opinion on the European Commission’s proposal regulation for a “Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (2014 - 2020)”, view welcoming the COSME Programme, which aims at facilitating access to finance for SMEs and encouraging entrepreneurship.

 

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): The European Commission has launched a Consultation on an Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan to address areas where entrepreneurial potential can be unleashed and where key bottlenecks can be overcome and obstacles to entrepreneurial activities removed. This consultation seeks reactions to a variety of possible measures which could be brought together under this Action Plan so as to bring together the best practices for the broadest impact across Europe. The consultation period ends on 1 October 2012. View

 

The internal audit function in banks - final document: The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision issued its revised supervisory guidance for assessing the effectiveness of the internal audit function in banks. The guidance is built around 20 principles that seek to promote a strong internal audit function within banks. View

 

EU to improve Consumer Protection in Financial Services: The European Commission is proposing a legislative package to improve consumer protection in financial services, view by raising standards of advice and information about investments, and removing loopholes by tightening certain rules on investment funds. To read full article, click here.

 

Integrated Reporting: The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) has released the Draft Outline of the Integrated Reporting Framework. The Outline establishes for the first time the basic structure of the Framework and is intended to keep stakeholders informed as the Framework is developed. View

 

Transparency in corporate reporting: On 10 July 2012, Transparency International published a study analysing the transparency of corporate reporting on a range of anticorruption measures among the 105 largest publicly listed multinational companies. Together these companies are worth more than US$11 trillion and touch the lives of people in countries across the globe, wielding enormous and far reaching power. View

 

 

FEE Conference - Corporate reporting of the future, Brussels, Tuesday, 18 September 2012: Don’t miss out this unique opportunity and help shape how business will report in the future! This high level conference will bring European decision makers and relevant stakeholders including preparers, users, analysts, global standard setters and regulators together to discuss the future of corporate reporting. As places are limited, attendance is upon invitation only. Should you be interested in attending, please submit your interest indicating your name, title and organisation to conference@fee.be. The draft programme is now available from the FEE website: View

 

2nd UEAPME European SME Convention on 1 October 2012 - registrations are open: With the support of the European Commission, UEAPME will organise its 2nd “European SME Convention” in Brussels on 1 October 2012. The aim is to take stock of the financial proposals of the European Commission for the 2014-2020 programming period on cohesion policy, on the “Horizon 2020” programme for R&D and innovation and on the “COSME” programme for the competitiveness of SMEs. View

 

5th International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, 4 – 6 October 2012, Berlin:The Conference will focus on the future of CSR by exploring whether more collaboration between relevant global entities can bring more consistency across different institutions. About 100 international representatives from science, business, politics and governmental as well as non-governmental organisations will gather in Berlin to discuss the role and impact of CSR on corporate, manager and stakeholder behaviour. View