The European Commission has extended a ruling that permits companies from the United States and five other countries to file accounts under their own national GAAPs, rather than having to use International Financial Reporting Standards, which are mandatory for European public companies.

When the trading bloc made IFRS reporting mandatory for companies listed on any European Union market in 2005, it allowed companies from the United States, Japan, China, Canada, South Korea, and India to continue using their own accounting rules in the short term. That transitional get-out was due to expire at the end of this year, but the Commission has now agreed to extend it.

The Commission made it clear that it remained committed to IFRS and the development of one set of global accounting standards. It said it would review the “equivalence” status of the standards used in China, Canada, South Korea, and India by 2011 at the latest, the date at which the United States has said it will decide whether to mandate IFRS.

The extension of the opt-out follows last year’s move by the United States to waive the requirement for foreign companies—EU-listed ones among them—to reconcile their IFRS accounts to U.S. GAAP.

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