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European Union - 8th
Company Law Directive
DIRECTIVE
2006/43/EC
Article 45
Registration and oversight of third-country auditors and
audit entities
1. The competent authorities of a Member State shall, in
accordance with Articles 15 to 17,
register every third-country
auditor and audit entity
that provides an audit report
concerning the annual or consolidated accounts of a company
incorporated out with the Community whose transferable securities
are admitted to trading on a regulated market of that Member State within the meaning of point 14 of Article 4(1)
of Directive 2004/39/EC,
except when the company is an
issuer exclusively of debt securities admitted to trading on a regulated
market in a
Member
State
within the meaning of
Article 2(1)(b) of Directive 2004/109/EC (1) , the denomination
per unit of which is at least EUR 50 000 or, in case of debt
securities denominated in another currency, equivalent, at the
date of issue, to at least EUR 50 000.
2. Articles 18 and 19 shall apply.
3. Member States shall subject registered third-country auditors
and audit entities to their systems of oversight, their
quality assurance systems and their systems of investigation and penalties.
A Member
State
may
exempt a registered third country
auditor or audit entity from being subject to its quality assurance
system
if another
Member
State's
or third country's
system of quality assurance that has been assessed as equivalent
in accordance with Article 46 has carried out a quality review
of the third-country auditor or audit entity concerned during
the previous three years.
(1) Directive 2004/109/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15
December 2004 on the harmonisation of transparency
requirements in relation to information about issuers whose
securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market (OJ L
390,
31.12.2004, p. 38).
4. Without prejudice to Article 46, audit reports concerning
annual accounts or consolidated accounts referred to in paragraph
1 of this Article issued by third-country
auditors or audit entities
that are
not registered
in the Member State
shall have
no legal
effect in that
Member
State.
5. A
Member
State
may
register a third-country audit entity
only if:
(a) it meets requirements which are
equivalent
to those laid
down in Article 3(3);
(b)
the majority of the members of the administrative or
management body of the third-country audit entity meet
requirements which are
equivalent
to those laid down in
Articles 4 to
10;
(c)
the third-country auditor carrying out the audit on behalf
of the third-country audit entity meets requirements which are
equivalent to
those laid down in Articles 4 to 10;
(d)
the audits of the annual or consolidated accounts referred
to in paragraph 1 are carried out
in accordance with international
auditing standards
as referred to in Article 26, as
well as the requirements laid down in Articles 22, 24 and 25, or
with
equivalent
standards and requirements;
(e)
it publishes on its website an annual transparency report
which includes the information referred to in Article 40 or it
complies with
equivalent
disclosure requirements.
6. In order to ensure uniform application of paragraph 5(d)
the equivalence referred to therein shall be assessed by the
Commission in cooperation with Member States and shall be
decided upon by the Commission in accordance with the procedure
referred to in Article 48(2).
Pending such a decision
by the Commission, Member States may assess the equivalence
referred to in paragraph 5(d) as long as the Commission has
not taken any decision.
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