Europe: company accounting requirements

Last year the the European Commission published a proposal to repeal the current Accounting Directives, replacing them (and their amendments) with a single, new Directive: see here (pdf). This proposal contained, amongst other things, provisions to reduce the disclosure required by small companies and, for medium and large companies, it was proposed that certain principles - such as substance over form and materiality - should be mandatory in respect of information in the financial statements. Yesterday the Council of the European Union agreed the general approach of the Commission's proposals: see here (pdf).