Public sector financial reforms: which convergence between European member States?

Many countries have recently undertaken government accounting and financial reporting reforms, at central and local level, in order to meet transparency, accountability and comparison needs. In the meantime, the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board issued the first set of accounting standards specifically dedicated to public sector. But their adoption is not compulsory, so not all countries referred to them in reforming their government financial reporting. Given that a standardised government accounting and financial reporting model does not exist, this study compares three European countries (France, Italy and the United Kingdom) and one supranational institution (European Union) in order to highlight similarities and differences between accounting reforms recently carried out at central level. The aim of the paper is to verify if a set of common elements can be identified, as to consider them a first step towards European central government financial reporting harmonization.