Members' only event
19 October 2022 (09:30 - 17:00)
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Accountants, auditors & advisors – assemble!
On 19 October, we hosted Members’ Engagement Day. This exclusive, hybrid event brings together our member bodies’ representatives, staff, and experts. Over 90 participants joined to discuss the profession’s future. What is our strategy in response to new EU policy trends? What is the state of play on sustainability standards? These questions and many others were answered during our 3rd Members’ Engagement Day in Brussels.
Discussions were divided into sessions on the following topics:
Our Deputy-President Mark Vaessen and Chief Executive Olivier Boutellis-Taft discussed the Accountancy Europe strategy in the context of 2023 EU policy trends. During this session, we presented our governance toolkit in response to strategic objectives.
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The impact and prime importance of sustainability reporting standards. What are our next steps? Hilde Blomme and Jona Basha presented a high-level summary of our contributions to EFRAG/ISSB/US SEC consultations. Paul Gisby also referred to the IPSASB’s work on this topic and the impact on SMEs during the lively debate.
Why is it crucial to help SMEs go green, and what is their part in sustainable transition? Paul Gisby and Johan Barros presented Accountancy Europe’s Insights from SME accountants project, where we spotlighted smaller practitioners providing sustainability-related services to SMEs. To illustrate this, we interviewed Jesper Esman Andersen, an SMP from Denmark who took part in this project earlier this year.
Corporate governance topics are a tool to help accountants prepare for the discussions on the EC corporate reporting initiative. During his presentation, Andrew Hobbs, Vice-Chair of the Corporate Governance Policy Group, demonstrated the vision for the future of corporate governance. The group will focus, amongst other things, on enhancing the profession’s relevance in sustainability and alignment with the public interest.
Throughout the session, Jens Polls, Chair of the IESBA tax planning working group, together with Paul Gisby and Johan Barros, took a closer look at the currently open EC consultation on tax intermediaries and made a link with the ongoing IESBA project on tax services.
We provided an update on the outcome of the assurance requirement included in the CSRD. Delia Mehedintu, Policy Officer at European Commission and Willie Botha, Program and Technical Director at IAASB, spoke with Accountancy Europe’s Director Noémi Robert about the evolution of assurance standards in response to this demand.
After the last question from the audience, Myles Thompson, President of Accountancy Europe, took the floor to thank the members for attending the event with the hope of meeting again next year.
Delighted to see familiar and new faces of people we interact with mainly via computer screens, we ended the day with networking and catch-up conversations over a glass of wine.
Compelling presentations, lively discussions, and valuable comments from our experts and members turned Members’ Engagement Day into a vibrant event we look forward to hosting again!
