Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-03-Speech-4-047"
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"en.20010503.4.4-047"2
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"Mr President, the report before us is undoubtedly not the most exciting of those we are to discuss in this sitting. However, in saying this, I am not of course referring to Lord Inglewood’s excellent piece of work. We should congratulate him, and ourselves, on this.
Much can be achieved when, as a result of the codecision procedure, the European Parliament’s work improves the Commission’s proposals at a highly technical level, as it has in this instance. This not only makes a positive contribution to the process of drafting regulations, it also enhances the prestige of the European Parliament. The argument for broadening the scope of the codecision procedure is therefore strengthened.
As I said a moment ago, this report does not give rise to keen argument. That does not mean, however, that it lacks significance from a technical point of view. The proposal to update the directives on accounting is not only very important, it is in fact essential if the transparency of company accounts is to be improved.
Traditionally, the valuation rules for company accounts stipulated that assets be valued at cost price, referred to as the historic value. This criterion was therefore invoked in the directives on accounting, as is logical in order to prevent the manipulation of accounts to present an inaccurate picture of a company’s status.
The aim was to prevent company directors from skilfully revaluing entries under assets to produce a distorted impression of the state of their business. Incidentally, certain accounting irregularities which are not tolerated in company accounts, have been sanctioned in relation to the public accounts of a number of Member States, to allow them to join the euro. In this instance, the euphemism ‘creative accounting’ has been used in place of ‘irregularities’.
However, these accounting criteria relating to historic value were not cast in stone. Furthermore, the financial markets today are highly complex and the use of sophisticated financial products is increasing. It is therefore necessary to replace historic value with fair value. This fair value, included in the proposal for a directive that we are to approve, is obviously not as fixed as permanently as the historic value, given that its limits are much more loosely defined. Its inclusion requires more precise instruments, as provided in the proposed amendments we will support."@en1
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