On the 29 June 2008 deadline for implementation of the Statutory Audit Directive by the EU Member States, only seven EU Member States have implemented the network definition of the Statutory Audit Directive and three EU Member States (and Norway) have implemented or will implement a definition which approximates to the one in the Directive.

FEE continues to strongly encourage European Member States to ensure the urgent and consistent application of the definition of networks of audit firms within the Internal Market: to this end, they should stick to the definition of networks as included in Article 2.7. of the Statutory Audit Directive. Inconsistency will threaten legal certainty, it will be unworkable in practice and in addition will raise compliance costs in contradiction with the stated objective of reducing administrative burdens in the EU.

This results from an updated Survey regarding the current network firm definitions used in all 27 EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland.

FEE Survey on the Network Firm Defintions Across Europe – Update