The Evolution of Financial Statements Regulations in the Main European Countries

In the context of corporate reporting within the member states of the European Union (EU), the European Commission (EC) establishes regulations and Directives. Once approved at the EU level, each member State must transpose directives into their national legislation. In recent years, the EC has undertaken three significant projects: (1) adopted the International Accounting Standards/International Financial Report Standards (IAS/IFRS) framework of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) for financial reporting of certain undertakings, (2) developed Non-Financial Reporting (NFR) requirements and (3) adopted the International Auditing Standards (IAudS ) audit standards of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB). This chapter focuses on the first two which deal with corporate reporting.