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.’