The Council of the European Union has published a compromise proposal on the Transparency Directive, in an endeavour to reach an agreement with the Parliament in the first reading. The primary amendments proposed include: the abandonment of quarterly accounts in favour of a quarterly management report (which would include a statement on the financial position of the issuer but not the provision of any financial information); requiring the Commission to adopt implementing measures to set up a mechanism to determine the equivalence of non-EU country accounting standards (rather than simply recognising that certain third countries had equivalent standards); to exempt non-EU issuers from annual and half yearly reporting requirements prior to the financial year beginning on or after 1 January 2007, provided they prepare their accounts in accordance with internationally accepted accounting standards; and amending the grandfathering provisions for debt securities. The Directive is scheduled to be adopted by the Parliament in April 2004. (For background, see Transparency Directive: Improved investor information or over-regulation? and Transparency Directive: text adopted by Council of Economics and Finance Ministers).