Tirana, October 15, 2015 – More than 30 policymakers
and practitioners from six countries in Southeast Europe met with the
World Bank’s Centre for Financial Reporting Reform (CFRR) from 14 to 15
October in Tirana, Albania, to review challenges and identify solutions
for implementing the European Union (EU) acquis communautaire — the accumulated body of EU law.
The main theme of the workshop was the state of transposition and implementation of the EU acquis communautaire
on financial reporting and auditing in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Kosovo, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and
Serbia. These countries are part of the Road to Europe: Program of Accounting Reform and Institutional Strengthening (EU-REPARIS), which helps participating countries to align their corporate financial reporting and audit laws with the acquis communautaire.
Strong financial reporting systems can...
facilitate access to finance
and capital markets for local enterprises (particularly small and
medium-sized ones - SMEs), create a business climate conducive to
growth, promote the integration of local companies into the global
economy, and reduce the risk of crises in the financial sector.
Over the course of two days, policy experts from the CFRR and the
European Commission worked with policymakers and accounting
practitioners to determine the most effective ways to implement the new
accounting and auditing directives, namely: the 2013 EU Accounting
Directive, the International Accounting Standards Regulation designed to
standardize companies' financial reporting, and the 2014 Statutory
Audit Directive. Participants also mapped out the way forward for each
participating country and defined a strategy designed to foster greater
cooperation between the six countries.
The workshop was convened under the Road to Europe: Program of Accounting Reform and Institutional Strengthening (EU-REPARIS), which is funded by the European Union and implemented by the CFRR.
