Despite the dense political climate here in Brussels now, with the names for the top EU jobs still popping up after the EU elections, recently there have been some interesting documents published:

1. This week the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) issued  the "Call for evidence - The Use of a Standard Reporting Format for Financial Reporting of Issuers Having Securities Admitted to Trading on Regulated Markets"

It says that "CESR has not yet taken any position on standard reporting formats, or more particularly XBRL reporting" but "on the basis of the analysis CESR may address the issue in more detail in the preparation of a report to the European Commission on the possible future development of the network of OAMs"

Full text at

CESR invites comments by 30 November 2009. All contributions should be submitted online via CESR’s website under the heading ‘Consultations’ at www.cesr.eu

It's worth to mention that the European Commission recommendation of 2007

(full text here: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2007:267:0016:0022:EN:PDF)

requires  the Member States to encourage the competent authorities to draw up, by 30 September 2010, within CESR, appropriate guidelines for the future development of the electronic network.

Also, The European Commission recently drafted legislation that, if adopted, would transform existing regulatory committees (including CESR) into Authorities in a position to mandate technical standards.

(text of the draft legislation here: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/finances/committees/index_en.htm)

2. The European Commission issued the "Summary Report on the Consultation Paper on Review of the Accounting Directives – Cutting Accounting Burden for Small Business”. Two of the questions (20, 21) were about XBRL.

The text reads:

"There was general support for the idea of electronic reporting. (…) Respondents stated that electronic tools could contribute to the creation of a one-stop shop reporting system (whereby a company is only required to file its accounts once to meet various users needs), but cautioned that adoption should be gradual to minimize implementation costs. The benefits of electronic reporting were noted as being speedier filing, easier preparation of consolidated statements, more accurate and uniform data and the opportunity to centralise reporting. Banks pointed out that it can reduce the cost of data analysis. (…) The majority of respondents with an explicit opinion supported a common EU XBRL taxonomy. Strongest support came from preparers followed by public authorities. Users and accountants were more or less evenly split on the issue."

Full text here:

SUMMARY REPORT