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 14 September 2002 were adopted.

The Commission adopted International Accounting Standard (IAS) 39 with the exclusion of certain provisions relating to the full Fair Value Option and hedge accounting, by Commission Regulation (EC) No 2086/2004 of 19 November 2004 amending Regulation (EC) No 1725/2003 on the adoption of certain international accounting standards in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the insertion of IAS 39^f3. The Commission adopted improved IAS 39 standard for limited fair value option by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1864/2005^f4.

On 14 April 2005, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published an amendment to IAS 39 allowing entities in particular to designate, in certain circumstances, a forecast intragroup transaction denominated in a foreign currency as the hedged item in consolidated financial statements. It is a common risk management practice to designate the foreign currency risk of a forecast intragroup transaction as the hedged item and the current IAS 39 did not permit hedge accounting for this. Under the current IAS 39 only a transaction external to the entity can be designated as a hedged item.

The consultation with technical experts in the field confirms that the amendments to IAS 39 meet the technical criteria for adoption set out in Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002.

Regulation (EC) No 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: