On 27 and 28 October 2015, the 16th plenary meeting of the European Audit Inspection Group (EAIG) took place, hosted by the Maltese Quality Assurance Unit of the Accountancy Board in Sliema, Malta.

The meeting, organised to discuss the work programme for 2016 and an update on the extension of the Common Audit Inspection Methodology (CAIM) developed and implemented by members of the EAIG, was opened by the Honourable Professor Edward Scicluna, Minister of Finance of Malta, and was chaired by the German Auditor Oversight Commission (AOC).

The EAIG constitutes a pan-European platform for cooperation between audit regulators and has as its primary purpose the creation of awareness of important issues with a view to promoting cooperation and consistency amongst European audit regulators on inspections.

The group shares inspection practices and findings amongst its members and facilitates discussions on topics related to audit inspections with third parties, such as the audit standard setters and the audit profession. The former included the International Auditing and Assurance Standards (IAASB) and the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA), with which a meeting was also held. The European Commission attends the EAIG meetings as an observer, intervening only when confidential supervisory information is discussed.

As part of the annual liaision with the international standard setters, the EAIG met with the IAASB and the IESBA, in order for the representatives of both boards to update the EAIG on current workstreams and on how comments raised by regulators have been accounted for in their processes. EAIG members often contribute insight into the application of standards in the audit practice as well as an analysis of the pan-European audit inspection findings database which is maintained by the group, cotributing to the standard setting process.

In November 2014, the EAIG members adopted the first suite of common work programmes for the inspection of firms’ internal quality control procedures. These work programmes, which have been developed on the basis of the EU Directive on Statutory Audit and the International Standard for Quality Control, will contribute to the harmonisation of the inspections of audit firms across Europe.  

EAIG members discussed the progress in the implementation of the CAIM and the development of further common work programmes on selected areas of audit engagement reviews.

As part of the audit regulators' ongoing dialogue on improvements in audit quality with the largest European audit networks, the EAIG has established sub-groups, the chairs of whom presented their plans for the forthcoming year at the meeting. The sub-groups aim to collaborate on the inspection approaches of audit regulators with regard to a particular network. Potential network specific issues identified in the course of inspections will be discussed by the respective sub-group with representatives of that network.

On 25 September 2015, the EAIG Steering Group met in London with the European Contact Group, which represents the six largest European Audit Networks, these being BDO, Deloitte, EY, Grant Thornton, KPMG and PwC. The meeting involved discussions of audit quality matters as well as certain aspects of the EU audit reform.

The next meeting of the EAIG will be hosted by the Hellenic Accounting and Auditing Standards Oversight Board (ELTE) and will take place in Athens in March 2016.

 

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