Ahern concern over EU accounting standards

The Minister for Trade and Commerce has expressed concern at the European Commission's handling of the introduction of new agreed international standards for accounting.

The Commission has said that technical difficulties mean that Europe's banking sector will not adopt the standard in its current form, and has sought a "carved-out" version of it.

Micheal Ahern said, however, that this would undermine the quality of financial reporting in the EU, and set an "unhealthy" precedent.