International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)

On 19 July 2002, the European Parliament and the European
Council issued a regulation on the application of International
Accounting Standards (IAS Regulation).

The objective of the IAS
Regulation is to harmonize the financial information presented
by companies in order to achieve a high level of transparency
and comparability in the financial statements, thereby ensuring
the effcient functioning of the capital market in the EU. The IAS
Regulation stipulates that, from 2005 onwards, publicly traded
companies must prepare consolidated financial statements
in accordance with IAS, renamed as International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRS), that have been endorsed by the EU.

Furthermore, the IAS Regulation permits Member States to de-
cide whether the application of IFRS to the consolidated financial
statements of non-publicly traded companies and/or to individual
company financial statements shall be optional or mandatory.