Central government accounting and financial reporting: a comparison between France, Italy and the European Union

In recent years, many countries have undertaken reforms of their governmental accounting and financial reporting systems, at central level as well as at local level, in order to meet transparency, accountability and comparison needs. Furthermore, the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board issued the first set of accounting standards specifically dedicated to the public sector; but the adoption of these standards is not compulsory, so not all public sector reforms are based on them. Given that a standardised governmental accounting and financial reporting model does not exist, the paper aims to focus the attention on the European continent: firstly, analyzing the central government accounting and financial reporting systems of two European countries (France and Italy), paying particular attention on the reforms recently carried out, in order to compare these two systems, emphasizing similarities and differences; secondly, assessing if French and Italian central accounting models are in line with the EU system, as they are both EU member states.