ACCOUNTING HARMONIZATION FOR SME-S IN EUROPE: SOME REMARKS ON IFRS FOR SME-S AND EMPIRICAL EVIDENCES

The debate on accounting truth is an old problem (Briloff, 1979) and it is at present more and more important in harmonization process, especially involving small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent the sector of real economic power and are the largest employers in Europe. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issued an International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) designed for use by small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) the 9th of July 2009, however some national European standard-setters seem not to be keen to introduce them. The aim of our paper is to analyse, both from a theoretical and an empirical point of view, the difficulty to implement the IFRSs for SMEs, such as drawn by the IASB, in the European countries. Our considerations of IFRSs for SMEs will result both from an analysis of the EFRAG point of view as well as from empirical evidences focusing on the Croatian experiences which represent an interesting experiment in the European context.