FCM Survey – November 2007

This survey is the first study on the accountancy profession in the Mediterranean area. It aims at providing a broad overview of the rules governing the admission to and the exercise of the accountancy profession, as well as the activities performed by professional accountants in 15 countries across the Mediterranean area.

The survey provides general information about the type of laws governing the profession; professional titles used by the members of each institute; mandatory citizenship/residency as a condition for institute membership; distribution of members in public practice, industry or governmental bodies; restrictions on professional partnerships or in their legal form; general statistical information; statutory audit reports and a list of audited companies. Regarding the admission to the profession, the survey investigates the rules and requirements for admission to the institutes. In particular, the survey compares: training and trainee programmes of each country; entities responsible for laying out and managing the admission examination; incompatibilities with the exercise of other functions or professions; regulations on the qualifications of foreign professionals; special rules of statutory auditing. Finally, the survey investigates the member’s common activities; the reserved and forbidden activities for the members of each institute; accounting, auditing, practice and ethic rules governing the profession.
 
The results of the survey show a broad homogeneity among the countries surveyed in the regulation of the accounting and auditing profession. It has been found that there are more similarities than differences in the exercise of the accountancy profession across the Mediterranean concerning required education and training, as well as performed activities.