A group of MEPs tasked to reform the audit market will now vote on the radical proposals in March - despite, almost comical protestations, from certain members - but a date, for when the package of reform will be given the official go ahead, remains unclear.

Arguments over measures such as compulsory auditor rotation and joint audits have continued among members of the European parliament's legal affairs committee (JURI), but a final position on the proposals will - subsequent to a vote - be provided by JURI in March.

As well as being given the go ahead by JURI, the proposals are then required to go before the whole parliament, however as yet a provisional date has not been set for when this could occur.

The report seeks to return confidence to the market in the quality and reliability of the audit process, both by improving the way in which auditors disclose information and responding to investor concerns about auditor independence.

Sajjad Karim, the Conservative MEP, responsible for pushing the plans through, said: "We are seeing a change in mindset already among companies with regard to corporate governance, and specifically their relationship with their auditor. The rules we agree on must support and complement these moves towards improved corporate governance and most importantly shareholder involvement in the audit process."

The proposals have, however, come in for criticism with Spanish MEP, Antonio Masip, even producing a newspaper cartoon as part of his call for tighter regulation of the audit market. The humorous animation joked that an internal auditor, an external auditor and even a semi-retired auditor would all work out that 2 + 2 made 5.

Responding to the criticism from Masip, Karim sought to make judgments 'based on the evidence at hand, rather than newspaper cartoons'.