Investors and shareholders will miss critical information’ if the EU adopts a ‘simplistic’ approach to cutting financial regulation, senior accountants have warned.

The comments, from the European Federation of Accountants, were made in response to a new consultation aimed at simplifying rules, issued by internal markets commissioner Charlie McCreevy.

McCreevy said: ‘If we want to enable European businesses to compete in today’s global market, we need to cut red tape. Many EU rules on company law and accounting are more than 20 years’ old and place unnecessary burdens on EU businesses.’

But FEE president Jacques Potdevin said the process could harm the value of shareholder information: ‘Demands [for information] are real and if they are not met through harmonised rules, each player will still seek to obtain and verify it, therefore submitting SMEs to unco-ordinated and costly information demands.’