Harmonising public sector accounting laws and regulations of the European Union member states: powers and competences
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208523211060007 |
| Author | Karoline Helldorff,Johan Christiaens |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Harmonising public sector
accounting laws and
regulations of the
European Union member
states: powers and
competences
Karoline Helldorff
Ghent University, Belgium
Johan Christiaens
Ghent University, Belgium
Abstract
This paper analyses the powers and competences of the EU to standardise public sector
accounting of the member states and to take other EU action in the field of public sector
accounting. We argue that public sector accounting forms part of the administrative
organisation of the member states that is not a core EU competence. EU initiatives
such as the European Public Sector Accounting Standards project, which aim to increase
transparency and comparability, therefore need to follow the rules set out for adminis-
trative matters in general. The study reveals on the one hand that EU actions are essen-
tially limited to voluntary cooperation and influences of other policy areas. But on the
other hand, it shows that they do not need to be limited to the initiatives currently dri-
ven by Eurostat.
Points for practitioners
The future of the European Public Sector Accounting Standards project is uncertain.
However, it is very unlikely that it will take the shape of a top-down set of readymade
EU accounting standards that will force public administrations to adjust their inner
workings. Public sector accounting is not (yet) a (typical) European policy, but simply
Corresponding author:
Karoline Helldorff, Department of Accounting Corporate Finance and Taxation, Ghent University, Sint-
Pietersplein 7, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Email: Karoline.Helldorff@ugent.be
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
2023, Vol. 89(3) 741–756
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00208523211060007
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
a national one that the EU can support. The EU initiative can be considered as an oppor-
tunity for collaboration and knowledge sharing on how to increase transparency of pub-
lic sector accounting.
Keywords
administrative law, EPSAS, European administrative space, harmonisation, public sector
accounting
Introduction
The European Commission and in particular Eurostat, the statistical office of the European
Union (EU), are working on harmonising public sector accounting (PSA) of the member
states (MS) on a European level. Inspired by the International Public Sector Accounting
Standards (IPSAS), the idea of the European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS)
project is to increase transparency and comparability of PSA by developing one set of account-
ing standards that is applicable in all EU MS at every level of government (European
Commission, 2013b). IPSAS are a non-binding public sector version of the International
Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) developed for businesses. They are based on the convic-
tion that accrual accounting, which is a private businesses practice,provides the best model for
the convergence of national administrative organisations. They focus on financial reporting
and do not cover any other phase of the budget management cycle. This stands in stark contrast
to the current situation in most European countries, where accounting systems are anchored in
the constitution in the context of budget management. PSA is governed by administrative laws
and regulations and the ‘standard setter’is in fact the law maker or another governmental body.
PSA in the EU is a policy that has thus far been exclusively dealt with at MS level, although
partially inspired and influenced by international developments such as IPSAS (Brusca et al.,
2016; Gröpl, 2013; López et al., 2002; Portal et al., 2012) or the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) initiatives (Moretti and Youngberry, 2018).
On an EU level, PSA is portrayed as a part of economic policy by setting it in the
context of the MS’obligations regarding their budgetary frameworks (Committee on
Economic and Monetary Affairs, 2011; Economic and Financial Committee, 2014,
2017; European Commission, 2017, 2020). References are also made to the governance
of IFRS, which harmonises accounting for certain types of companies within the EU
(European Commission, 2013a, 2013b). This leads to the implicit assumption that the
EPSAS project can rely for its implementation on the same powers and competences
as other EU initiatives on economic governance or the common market.
Since Eurostat launched a public consultation on the suitability of IPSAS for the MS
(Eurostat, 2012), the idea of a European version of IPSAS has received increased attention
in academic literature. In a literature review, Caruana et al. (2019) uncover the great
variety of contributions in the development of EPSAS. The issues predominantly raised
are concerned with the specific nature of PSA, the professions involved and a caution that
EPSAS alone may not be enough to achieve transparency and comparability. In accounting
literature, the EPSAS project itself is usually approached from a technical perspective,
742 International Review of Administrative Sciences 89(3)
To continue reading
Request your trial