Harmonization at the European Union: A difficult but needed task

Abstract

New Public Management (NPM) is a cluster of techniques that guide the public sector towards modernization and innovation and accountancy is one of the matters being reformed. In the recent years, local governments have initiated, with different intensities, important changes in their counting systems. Nevertheless, these changes have had different effects in each country and this affects comparability. Harmonization tries to allow comparison by eliminating differences. In this paper, firstly, we analyze the degree of harmony between the annual accounts of Eurpean Union local governments, taking the IPSAS of the IFAC as a reference. Secondly, we analyze whether the information disclosed was enough to satisfy certain objectives.local government, annual accounts, harmonisation