The proposal means the EC has judged the
Canadian, Japanese and Swiss authorities able and willing to fulfil
the requirements in Article 47 of the Statutory Audit
Directive.

This relates particularly to their capacity to
enter reciprocal working arrangements with member states’ auditor
oversight bodies on the exchange of audit working papers or other
relevant documents and to preserve the confidentiality of
information received from the EC.

The commission said the US also seems open to
such co-operation but is prevented by national law from sharing its
audit working papers with third parties.

It said the US will be included in the current
proposal if it introduces the necessary framework allowing for
mutual exchange of audit working papers with the EU public
oversight bodies before the European Parliament votes on the
proposal.