A third country shall be deemed to set requirements equivalent to those set out in the second subparagraph of Article 4(3) of Directive 2004/109/EC in relation to individual accounts where, under the law of a third country, an issuer whose registered office is in that third country is not required to prepare consolidated accounts but is required to prepare its individual accounts in accordance with international accounting standards recognised pursuant to Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council as applicable within the Community or with third country national accounting standards equivalent ...[+++] to those standards.

Mr. Charles-Antoine St-Jean: No, but the government has decided to apply widely accepted accounting standards, as several other governments have done.

I can understand why the Auditor General finds that this procedure may not be consistent with generally accepted accounting principles.

Financial management and accountability code. Clauses 8 and 9 are on generally accepted accounting principles and generally accepted auditing standards.

(9) In order to maintain such consistency between internationally recognised accounting standards and Directives 78/660/EEC, 83/349/EEC and 86/635/EEC, it is necessary to amend these Directives in order to allow for certain financial assets and liabilities to be valued at fair value.

(10) This amendment to Directives 78/660/EEC, 83/349/EEC and 86/635/EEC is in line with the Commission's communication to the European Parliament and the Council of 13 June 2000 on the EU financial reporting strategy which proposes the use of recognised international accounting standards for the preparation of consolidated financial statements by listed companies.