EU Commission issues draft audit standards

Brussels -- Spurred on by the collapse of Italian dairy company Parmalat at the beginning of the year, the EU Commission is pushing hard to implement reforms to the region’s audit standards. Frits Bolkestein, the EU financial services commissioner, has been spearheading the reform drive, albeit with mixed success.

In mid-March, the EU Commission put forward a proposal for overhauling the audit standards in the region, and the framework has been drafted with the work of the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board in mind. "We have fine-tuned our corporate governance and statutory audit strategies in the light of recent events," said Bolkestein in an early March speech. He noted that the proposal would update "existing EU arrangements. It will strengthen controls over the audit profession. It will