Introductory text

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 July 2002 on the application of international accounting standards^f1, and in particular Article 3(1) thereof,

Whereas:

By Commission Regulation (EC) No 1725/2003^f2, certain international standards and interpretations that were extant at 1 September 2002 were adopted.

On 18 December 2003, the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) published 13 revised International Accounting Standards and gave notice of the withdrawal of IAS 15 Information reflecting the effects of changing prices. The purpose of the revision was the further improvement of the quality and consistency of the body of existing International Accounting Standards (IASs).

In general, the objectives of this improvement project were to reduce or eliminate alternatives, redundancies and conflicts within the standards, to deal with some convergence issues and to make improvements in the structure of existing IASs. Furthermore, IASB decided to incorporate existing interpretations into the improved standards in order to increase transparency and consistency and make the standards more comprehensive.

The consultation with technical experts in the field confirms that the revised IASs meet the technical criteria for adoption set out in Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002, and in particular the requirement of being conducive to the European public good.

The adoption of the standards of the ‘Improvement projects’ implies, by way of consequence, amendments to other international accounting standards and interpretations in order to ensure consistency between international accounting standards. Those consequential amendments are affecting International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) No 1, International Accounting Standards (IASs) Nos 7, 12, 14, 19, 20, 22, 23, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 and 41 and interpretation by the Standard Interpretation Committee (SIC) Nos 7, 12, 13, 21, 22, 25, 27 and 32. By adoption of those standards the interpretations by the Standard Interpretation Committee (SIC) Nos 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 14, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 30 and 33 are superseded.

Regulation (EC) 1725/2003 should therefore be amended accordingly.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Accounting Regulatory Committee,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: