Search Results for: accountancy

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INTERNATIONAL accountancy firms will be closely monitoring next week’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Hong Kong for signs that the WTO’s long-running Doha Development Round talks are about to crack open national accounting and auditing markets. Progress in refreshing the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) has been sluggish since talks began in 2000, one year ahead of the general round, with few trade-offs being offered in bilateral exchanges.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has called on European Union (EU) countries to further liberalise their professions, including legal specialists, although a Communication’ policy paper praises Britain for its reforms. The UK “is making good progress” across the board in fighting restrictive practices regarding profession entry, fees and advertising, along with Denmark and the Netherlands, said Brussels.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission is holding a legislative bonfire, releasing details of financial proposals it will abandon under a drive by its current regime to simplify European Union (EU) laws and lessen their impact on industry. Most of the proposals earmarked for the shredder have encountered political opposition from the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, making it difficult for the Commission to get them passed into law.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has called on European Union (EU) countries to further liberalise their professions, including accountancy, although a detailed report praises Britain for its reforms. The UK “is making good progress” across the board in fighting restrictive practices regarding profession entry, fees and advertising, along with Denmark and the Netherlands, said Brussels.…

Keith Nuthall
MARTA Andreasen, the former chief accounting officer of the European Commission who was dismissed last year after exposing serious weaknesses in the Brussels accounting system, is chasing business having established her own consultancy business in recent months. Ms Andreasen added that she had abandoned two cases she was bringing against the Commission in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and had begun a new action seeking the annulment of her dismissal and heavy damages exceeding Euro 1 million based on an alleged violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and Commission staff regulations.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels, and KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Commission official has told Accountancy Age that the ‘high level tax group’ set up to consider the implications of the Marks & Spencer tax case may be just “gesture politics”, given the difficulties of making reforms to the European Union’s (EU) court system.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has made the case for governments and inter-governmental organisations increasing their influence over cross-border accountancy bodies, such as the International Accounts Standards Board (IASB). In a green paper on financial services, Brussels said that “the debate about the future governance, funding and political accountability of global standard-setting bodies….are…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SUDDENLY accountants are being held in unusually high esteem and it’s all because of their work in connection with the relief effort for victims of the Boxing Day tsunami. To date some Pounds 4.7 billion for the stricken countries has been raised worldwide but nothing like that sum has yet got through to the people affected; some of it stolen perhaps and some of it wasted, but a lot of it bogged down in inadequate financial infrastructures: step forward the big multinational accountancy firms who have provided staff, management and professional advice and training, a good deal of it on a pro bono publico basis.…

Keith Nuthall
IT is good to know that Accountancy Age is required reading for European Commissioners, even when researching jokes for their usually dry speeches. Administrative affairs Commissioner Siim Kallas shamelessly plundered our wry linking of his job title with the ministerial moniker of Yes Minister’s hapless Jim Hacker.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission is expected to investigate the professional indemnity insurance market in the UK as part of a wider look into the business insurance sector, Commission officials have confirmed. The investigation has been ordered by Neelie Kroes, the EU competition commissioner, and is expected to begin in June.…