Evolution of EU public sector financial accounting
standardisation: critical events that opened the window for
attempted policy change

This paper analyses agenda-setting for EU policy change in respect to
public sector accounting harmonisation, adopting the garbage can
model for its theoretical framework. It utilises qualitative research
methods to determine what caused the window of opportunity to
open, why it led to a proposal for compulsory public sector accounting
standardisation for member states and why the International
Public Sector Accounting Standards were not adopted by the EU. It
concludes that harmonised accrual accounting is likely to be only a
minor instrument of EU fiscal governance and its Excessive Deficit
Procedure aiming to prevent governments running structurally
unbalanced public finances.