EY Global response - Green Paper on Audit Policy

Ernst & Young Global Limited Becket House 1 Lambeth Palace Road London SE1 7EU 8 December 2010 Tel: +44 [0]20 7980 0000 Fax: +44 [0]20 7980 0275 www.ey.com European Commission DG Internal Market & Services Rue de Spa, 2 B-1049 Brussels Belgium By e-mail: markt-greenpaper-audit@ec.europa.eu Dear Sirs, Green Paper entitled “Audit Policy: Lessons from the Crisis” - COM(2010) 561 final Ernst & Young Global Limited, the central entity of the global Ernst & Young organization, welcomes the opportunity to offer its views on the European Commission’s Green Paper, “Audit Policy: Lessons from the Crisis” (the Green Paper). Recognizing the challenge in summarizing a large number of lengthy responses to any public consultation, we have deliberately kept our responses at a high level. We would be happy to expand our response to any of the questions in the Green Paper if that would be helpful to European Commission staff. (1) Do you have general remarks on the approach and purposes of this Green Paper? We appreciate the Commission’s intent to examine the role of various capital market participants in the context of increasing investor confidence and promoting financial stability. We recognize that the Green Paper is but one element in a “holistic approach” being undertaken by the Commission and believe such a broad, comprehensive examination is appropriate. We also appreciate the significance of the issues that the Commission ...