Europe: revising the Accounting Directives

The European Commission yesterday published 12 actions for the Single Market in 2012: Together for new growth, a Communication setting out its proposals in respect of the Single Market Act: see here (pdf). One of theses actions is a revision of the Accounting Directives, the purpose of which (to quote from the Communication):

...is to reduce the administrative burden stemming from accounting requirements on micro- and small public limited companies and limited liability companies. The potential savings generated by this proposal amount to EUR 1.5 billion per year for 1.1 million small companies and EUR 5.2 billion per year for 5.9 million micro-enterprises. These savings would be mainly due to easier financial reporting requirements on these micro- and small enterprises. In addition, the review of the Directives will also improve the clarity and comparability of the financial statements of small- to large-sized companies across the EU. In addition, the Commission proposal to exempt micro-enterprises from the provisions of the accounting Directives should be adopted by the Council and the Parliament".