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European Union - 8th
Company Law Directive
DIRECTIVE
2006/43/EC
CHAPTER V:
AUDITING STANDARDS AND AUDIT REPORTING
Article 26
Auditing standards
1. Member States shall require statutory auditors and audit
firms to carry out statutory audits
in compliance with
international
auditing standards adopted by the Commission in
accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 48(2).
Member States may apply a national auditing standard as long
as the Commission has not adopted an international auditing
standard covering the same subject-matter.
Adopted international
auditing standards shall be published in full in each of
the official languages of the Community in the Official Journal
of the European Union.
2. The Commission may decide, in accordance with the
procedure referred to in Article 48(2), on the applicability of
international auditing standards within the Community.
The
Commission shall adopt international auditing standards for
application in the Community only if they:
(a) have been developed with proper due process, public oversight
and transparency, and are generally accepted internationally;
(b) contribute a high level of credibility and quality to the
annual or consolidated accounts in conformity with the
principles set out in Article 2(3) of Directive 78/660/EEC
and in Article 16(3) of Directive 83/349/EEC; and
(c) are conducive to the European public good.
3. Member States
may impose audit procedures or requirements
in addition to — or, in exceptional cases, by carving out
parts of — the international auditing standards
only if these
stem from specific national legal requirements relating to the
scope of statutory audits.
Member States shall ensure that these
audit procedures or requirements comply with the provisions
laid down in points (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 and shall communicate
them to the Commission and Member States
before their adoption.
In the exceptional case of the carving
out of parts of an international auditing standard, Member
States shall communicate their specific national legal
requirements,
as well as the grounds for maintaining them, to the
Commission and the other Member States at least six months
before their national adoption or, in the case of requirements
already existing at the time of adoption of an international
auditing standard, at the latest within three months of the
adoption of the relevant international auditing standard.
4. Member States
may impose additional requirements
relating to the statutory audits of annual and consolidated
accounts for a
period expiring on 29 June 2010.
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