Who are we?

Accountancy Europe unites 50 professional organisations from 35 countries that represent 1 million qualified accountants, auditors and advisors. Accountancy Europe is in the EU Transparency Register (No 4713568401-18). See our Statutes to find out more about our governance.

What do we do?

Professional accountants make numbers work for people. As Accountancy Europe, we translate their daily experience from across Europe to inform the European policy debate. We do this in the areas in which our profession can contribute most, namely: Sustainable Finance, SMEs, Tax, Reporting and Audit. 

Why?

Good decisions start with reliable information. Qualified accountants measure, disclose and add credibility to organisational data to support decisionmakers in the public and private sectors. They provide the transparency, trust and integrity that help markets function. 

What do accountants do?

Accountants, auditors and advisors work in diverse capacities and sectors: in accountancy firms of all sizes, SMEs, large companies, governments and local authorities, non-profit organisations, education, etc. Their expertise spreads widely in areas such as finance, corporate social responsibility, statutory audit, tax and financial advice, good governance, HR, assurance services and consultancy. Their diverse professional activities can be grouped as follows 

• Accountants They help organisations prepare their financial and non-financial data to measure performance, including the social impact of their economic activities. In doing so, they help organisations manage and control risks, provide checks and balances on good governance, ethics and sustainability. They also report these measurements to the outside world so stakeholders can base their decisions based on the organisation’s performance. 
• Auditors In providing audit and assurance services, they add credible information by giving an independent expert opinion to improve an organisation’s information or its context. In case of a statutory audit, they provide a legally mandated check of companies’  financial accounts and they form an opinion on those. The auditor helps improving the integrity of financial statements and stakeholders’ confidence in them. 
• Advisors Many organisations rely on the accountancy profession’s advisory capacity, for example on finance, tax, corporate social responsibility, HR, data protection and cyber security.

See how diverse their daily work is in our in our video and Stories from Practice. 

What distinguishes professional accountants from other finance professionals?

They are:

• qualified by, and registered with, the 50 professional bodies united in Accountancy Europe. 
• bound by international ethical standards based on 5 principles (integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality and professional behaviour) resulting in a need to take the public interest into account 
• susceptible to complaints for not meeting these standards which can lead to sanctions 
• required to follow continuous professional development to keep their expertise cutting-edge  
• bound by international quality standards for their accounting and auditing activities 

Where do we come from?

Accountancy Europe changed its name from the Federation of European Accountants (Fédération des Experts-comptables Européens, FEE) at our 30th anniversary celebration (7 December 2016). The Federation was formed on 1 January 1987 as the merger of two bodies: the Union Européenne des Experts-comptables Economique et Financiers (UEC) and the Groupe d’Etudes des Experts-comptables de la CEE.

For more information on our history, please visit the links below.

Publications 1998 – current

Annual Reports from 1999 – current

Presidents until now

Anniversaries:
30th – start of Accountancy Europe (2016)

25th – quotes from leaders recognising FEE’s work (2012)

20th – visual history of FEE (2007)