FEE responds to EU audit green paper with 'wait and see'

The European Commission wants ideas for what it should do about auditing in response to the financial crisis. The European Federation of Accountants thinks it may be well to do nothing, more, for now. The federation, known by its French acronym FEE, has issued a 59-page response to the European Union's green paper on audit. Green papers aren't intended as policy statements, more as calls for evidence, and among the evidence FEE presents is that a lot of changes already undertaken with respect to audit haven't yet come fully into effect. The EU's Statutory Audit Directive only became law in member states in 2010, it noted. The International Standards on Auditing are in force, but only for accounting period that begin after December 15, 2009, so in effect they haven't been through even a single cycle. "FEE also stresses that the majority of matters related to the audit market and the audit process have to be considered at a global level," it said. "There is a need for enhancing global convergence in relation to audit regulation, audit standards and ethical standards."

Source document: The FEE submission is a 59-page pdf file.