Different political, economic and cultural traditions give rise to great diversity between public sector accounting systems in different countries. The paper presents a literature review of the accounting principles and financial reporting in Europe, the financial statements and the relationship between financial and budgetary accounting.
The IPSAS perhaps provide an opportunity for European accounting, and in future, national governments should attempt their accounting systems to the IPSAS.
The paper contributes to the development of some points of view regarding the adoption of the IPSAS by the European countries accounting systems and the harmonization of the European public accounting systems.
International Public Sector Accounting Standards, European Union institutions, public accounting.