1. Introduction
The number of countries that have adopted for the IFRS is important. According to the survey
of the IFRS Foundation, over 115 countries require or permit the application of IFRS for at
least one category of firms. The number of these countries increases every year.
The European Union has been a pioneer in this domain with its adoption of the regulation
1606/2002 making mandatory the application of IFRS as adopted by the Union for the
publication of consolidated financial statements of listed companies. The adoption of this
regulation by the European Union was a solution to several problems of harmonization.
Indeed, this union of countries includes constantly new countries adopting divergent national
accounting standards. Although several regulations have been adopted by the European
Union in the past, the accounting harmonization between the countries constituting this
Union remained inefficient. The implementation of IFRS by the European Union was an ideal
solution for this problem of accounting harmonization.
Following this decision of the European Union, several other countries have chosen to
implement the IFRS. Some of these countries have started the process of implementation
early while others are until now in the phase of study of project of implementation of IFRS.
In fact, the introduction of IFRS requires a certain preparation and the establishment of a
strategy of implementation. Thus, after the studies established by the countries wishing to
implement the IFRS, these latter have opted for the suitable methods of implementation.
Several factors may explain the choice of the method of implementation of IFRS by a country.
In fact the countries that entirely trust the international standard setter have opted for an
advanced method of implementation named by Zeef and Nobes “due process” or have chosen
the sub-method “IFRS as issued by the IASB”; others countries wishing to keep some control
over standards applied by their companies have opted for the sub-method “fully convergence
with IFRS” or the sub-method “IFRS with deletions”; countries wishing to give their firms the
choice between two or more repositories have opted for the “optional” implementation; those
wanting to conserve certain accounting standards have opted for the method “Not fully
converged”.