Since 2005 all listed companies in the European Union have been required to prepare their
financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)1
. IFRS
were introduced in the European Union by Regulation 1606/2002, which mandates IFRS for listed
consolidated financial statements, with a member state option to apply IFRS to other reporting entities.
A certain number of states have used this option and have extended IFRS to separate financial
statements. Table 1 shows the states in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area
(EEA) requiring or permitting IFRS for separate financial statements.