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Following strategic discussions on strategy 2023-2024 within Accountancy Europe, it was concluded that the profession needs to ‘walk the talk’ in corporate governance in order to be able to suggest convincing messages to companies related to the EU corporate governance proposals.
To respond to this objective, Accountancy Europe has decided to launch a 3 phased project to collect data on specific aspects of firms’ corporate governance from a sample of EU countries / firms. The purpose of the project is to collect information on how firms are currently being governed.
Please respond to all the questions below to your best knowledge (word limit per question 400 words). In case you are not in a position to respond, you are encouraged to share this with your contacts in your country or firm.
Please note: The responses should not contain any competitively sensitive information, and preferably should be based on publicly available information.

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* 1. Please fill in your personal data below.

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* 2. Besides the EU minimum requirements** of the audit legislation, what are the additional minimum national legal requirements that audit firms in your country need to apply in relation to: i) the firm’s governance and ii) the transparency report?
** Article 4 of the Statutory Audit Directive (SAD) 2006/43 defines to a certain extend the ownership and governance of an audit firm:
  • a majority of the voting rights […] must be held by audit firms which are approved in any Member State or by natural persons who satisfy at least the conditions (for being an auditor in an EU MS) […]
  • a majority — up to a maximum of 75 % — of the members of the administrative or management body of the entity must be audit firms or auditor which are approved in any Member State […]
Article 13 of Regulation 537/2014 includes requirements for public transparency reports by audit firms which audit PIEs. 

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* 3. What are the global or regional (EU) network firm guidelines that apply to your firm or country regarding  firms’ governance?

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* 4. What are the voluntary additional requirements that your firm is applying in terms of governance practices (for example in relation to audit quality promotion, (independent) supervisory board, separation of audit practice, profit sharing, determination of remuneration of partners, transparency around such matters, other), if any (Questions 5,6,7,8, ask for detailed replies on the above)?

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* 5. Please explain how the firm's board (or equivalent structure) work. Does it oversee management? Does it include independent non-executive directors? Are the board's decisions included in the transparency report?

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* 6. Does your firm have arrangements for determining remuneration of management and if yes can you briefly explain their structure? Are these arrangements included in the transparency report?

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* 7. Does your firm have arrangements for determining profit sharing between different practices in the firm and if yes can you briefly explain their structure? Are these arrangements included in the transparency report?

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* 8. What other practices has your firm undertaken to promote audit quality to meet societal/investors’ expectations? Are these practices included in the transparency report?

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* 9. Has your firm undergone a legal or operational separation of the auditing and the consulting practices to meet investors’ or societal expectations (as a result of a legal obligation or because of an own initiative)? If yes, can you explain briefly whether/how it has affected the firm’s internal governance? Is it a national requirement or a firm requirement? Is this information included in the transparency report?

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* 10. Are there any other initiatives on policies around governance and transparency that you would like to mention?

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* 11. Do you have any suggestions for improving audit firms’ governance in Europe / the EU?

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