The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its Activity Report on IFRS Enforcement in the European Economic Area in 2011. The report provides an overview of the monitoring of compliance of financial information with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and enforcement action taken in the European Economic Area (EEA) in 2011. The report is based on the activities of the European Enforcers Coordination Sessions (EECS) and of the accounting enforcers in the EEA (European enforcers).  This operates under ESMA's oversight and its main objective is to coordinate the enforcement activities of Member States in order to increase convergence amongst European enforcer's activities which should contribute to fostering investor confidence. Its main functions include coordination of enforcement activities through the exchange of views on particular accounting matters, providing feedback to the International Accounting Standards Board on issues related to the application of the IFRS and work on dedicated projects identified as key priorities. This report: provides an overview of enforcement activities in the EEA and the coordination of enforcement through EECS; presents the outcome and some tentative conclusions relating to the enforcement of IFRS; and provides a summary of EECS engagement with third country accounting enforcers. The report is based on the activities of EECS and the European enforcers during 2011 relating to: Activities undertaken or coordinated at European level; Issues brought to the attention of the standard setter; Ex-ante activities incurred as part of the preparation of the annual review process; Findings in respect of reviews conducted in 2011; Actions taken to improve the quality of future financial reporting; and Decisions and emerging issues discussed during EECS meetings in the year.

Reasons for publication In October 2005, the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR), ESMA’s predecessor body, published a Recommendation on Alternative Performance Measures (“CESR Recommendation” CESR/05-178b). The CESR Recommendation was issued mainly in order to reinforce the objectives of Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 July 2002 on the application of international accounting standards. Given the CESR Recommendation has now been in force for more than 8 years, ESMA has decided to review it with the objective of strengthening the principles contained in it. ESMA now plans to re-issue the principles as ESMA [draft] guidelines thus ensuring that issuers and NCAs will make every effort to com-ply with them. Contents ESMA is issuing this Consultation Paper (CP) to inform market participants about the background to its decision to revise the CESR Recommendation and seek their views on such revision. Section II “Introduction” indicates the reasons for which ESMA believes that these [draft] guidelines on APMs should be issued. Section III “Scope and purpose of the [draft] guidelines” indicates when the [draft] guidelines apply and how these [draft] guidelines interact with financial statements. Section IV “Compliance and reporting obligations” describes how issuers and NCAs should comply with the [draft] guidelines. Section V “[Draft] Guidelines on APMs (Background)” describes the rationale followed in preparing the [draft] guidelines and explanations on the principles provided, which are included in full in Annex III. ESMA would appreciate any comments and answers from stakeholders on the questions contained in the consultation paper. For your convenience, the questions are summarised in annex II. Next steps ESMA will consider the feedback it receives to this consultation in 2014 and expects to publish final guide-lines in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its final Guidelines on the enforcement of financial information published by listed entities in the European Union (EU). The aim of the guidelines is to strengthen and promote greater supervisory convergence in existing enforcement practices amongst EU accounting enforcers. The Guidelines set out the principles to be followed by accounting enforcers throughout the enforcement process by defining the objectives, the characteristics of the enforcers, and some common elements in the enforcement process.