The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) - together with several national accounting standard-setters in Europe - have issued a strategy document announcing plans to review and investigate aspects of the Conceptual Framework they believe are particularly significant to European constituents.
The plans - announced by EFRAG together with standard-setters in the UK (Financial Reporting Council), France, (Autorité des Normes Comptables), Germany (Accounting Standards Committee of Germany) and Italy (Organismo Italiano di Contabilité) - will see the to address the more contentious issues that have arisen in the ongoing debate around the Framework.
The standard-setters say this effort is important to engage European constitutents in the debate surrounding the future of IFRS, and comes on the back of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) restarting its work on the Conceptual Framework.
In a joint statement, the accounting experts said they wanted to ensure ultimately that the revised conceptual framework reflects an underlying accounting model that European stakeholders believe is conducive to robust and effective financial reporting standards.
The work on the Conceptual Framework is considered to be the most important development in financial reporting since the restructuring of the IASB and the adoption of IFRS for use in Europe.
'The IASB has been struggling for too long to complete major projects with the existing Framework, the inadequacies of which are generally recognised. As a result, some past proposals have been based on creative interpretations of the existing Framework: in other cases proposals have been based on concepts that are unclear and have not been generally agreed.
'As we support the IASB's new work, we think it important to engage with the IASB in a constructive spirit. This requires that we set out well founded arguments for our positions, and show respect for contrary views,' the standard-setters said.
The IASB plans to complete its work on the Conceptual Framework by 2015.
