The Technical Expert Group of EFRAG entered a new phase of its life in April. From this month it has a new, full-time Chairman and a turnover of four of its eleven part-time members, two of whom have yet to be appointed. In addition, the chairmen of the German, French and UK standard setting bodies will attend its meetings in an observer capacity.

The changes stem partly from the membership review at the end of initial terms and partly from an internal organisational review begun at the start of 2003 and subsequently encouraged by ECOFIN, which wanted to improve the resources devoted in Europe to assessing and influencing the work of the IASB.

The incoming Chairman, Stig Enevoldsen, is a leading Danish accountant and former Chairman of his own country's standard setting body and of the IASC.

The new team faces a heavy agenda, as the last of the IFRSs intended for use in 2005, including the macro-hedging amendments to IAS 39, come up for review to determine whether EFRAG should recommend to the Commission their adoption for use in the EU.

Despite continuing discussions over some aspects of IAS 39, EFRAG believes that it should discharge its responsibility of reviewing the version of that standard in issue at the end of March. To assist in that process, the ASB written to EFRAG arguing that the wider issues outweigh remaining concerns with the standards themselves. In particular, comprehensive standards addressing financial instruments, derecognition and classification of capital instruments as debt or equity are essential if the accounting regime in Europe is to be regarded as credible. The ASB has therefore urged EFRAG to recommend to the Commission that these IASB standards be adopted for 2005.