Adaptation and Endorsement: The Incorporation of Global Standards for Banking and Accounting in the EU

The legal techniques for incorporating global standards for banking and accounting in the EU differ remarkably. The incorporation of standards drafted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) into EU law often takes the form of a process of adaptation: principles set forth in global standards form the basis of EU rules, which further specify such principles in detailed regulations. For international financial reporting standards (IFRS) set up by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), however, EU institutions have envisaged a systematic use of global standards, setting forth a specific endorsement procedure, through which the Commission decides whether the standards correspond to specific criteria. The analysis in the chapter shows how these two different models of incorporation can lead to very different results, in terms of how far procedural principles are respected and, ultimately, on the consequences of the incorporation of global standards on core EU administrative law principles.