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| European Union - 8th Company Law Directive DIRECTIVE 2006/43/EC (28) The complexity of international group audits requires good cooperation between the competent authorities of Member States and those of third countries. Member States should therefore ensure that competent authorities of third countries can have access to audit working papers and other documents through the national competent authorities. In order to protect the rights of the parties concerned and at the same time facilitate access to those papers and documents, Member States should be allowed to grant direct access to the competent authorities of third countries, subject to the agreement of the national competent authority. One of the relevant criteria for the granting of access is whether the competent authorities in third countries meet requirements which the Commission has declared adequate. Pending such a decision by the Commission, and without prejudice thereto, Member States may assess whether the requirements are adequate. (29) Disclosure of information as referred to in Articles 36 and 47 should be in accordance with the rules on the transfer of personal data to third countries as laid down in Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (1). (1) OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31. Directive as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 (OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1). (30) The measures necessary for the implementation of this Directive should be adopted in accordance with Decision 1999/468/EC and with due regard to the declaration made by the Commission in the European Parliament on 5 February 2002 concerning the implementation of financial services legislation. (31) The European Parliament should be given a period of three months from the first transmission of draft amendments and implementing measures to allow it to examine them and to give its opinion. However, in urgent and duly justified cases, it should be possible to shorten that period. If, within that period, a resolution is adopted by the European Parliament, the Commission should re-examine the draft amendments or measures. (32) Since the objectives of this Directive — namely requiring the application of a single set of international auditing standards, the updating of the educational requirements, the definition of professional ethics and the technical implementation of the cooperation between competent authorities of Member States and between those authorities and the authorities of third countries, in order further to enhance and harmonise the quality of statutory audit in the Community and to facilitate cooperation between Member States and with third countries so as to strengthen confidence in the statutory audit — cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale and effects of this Directive, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives. (33) With a view to rendering the relationship between the statutory auditor or audit firm and the audited entity more transparent, Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/349/EEC should be amended so as to require disclosure of the audit fee and the fee paid for non-audit services in the notes to the annual accounts and the consolidated accounts. (34) Directive 84/253/EEC should be repealed because it lacks a comprehensive set of rules to ensure an appropriate audit infrastructure, such as public oversight, disciplinary systems and systems of quality assurance, and because it does not provide specifically for regulatory cooperation between Member States and third countries. In order to ensure legal certainty, there is a clear need to indicate that statutory auditors and audit firms that have been approved under Directive 84/253/EEC are considered as approved under this Directive, HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE: |
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