SEC Chairman William Donaldson and EU Internal Market Commissioner Charles McCreevy met to discuss a range of topics of mutual interest between the Commission and the European Union, including the importance of compatible approaches to furthering investor protection, and expanding the use of high-quality global accounting standards.

Chairman Donaldson reaffirmed his support for the convergence program being undertaken jointly by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).

The roadmap sets out steps the SEC will take to eliminate the need for companies using IFRS to reconcile to US GAAP standards possibly as soon as 2007, but no later than 2009.