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.
