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Dear Colleagues,

This is my first letter as Chair of European Region. It is an honour for me to be Chair of the Region and I look forward to representing the members.

I would like to thank my predecessor, François Martin, for acting as Chairman over the last three years and for the professional manner in which he fulfilled that role.

My appointment as Chairman has led me to reflect on our goals as member firms of AGN and these, I feel, are as follows:

• To refer work to AGN member firms in the knowledge that our clients will be serviced to a high standard.
• To receive work from AGN members.
• To be members of an Association which has the capacity to generate new work in addition to normal referral work.

I will do my best as your Chairman to ensure that the Board continues to achieve the above goals and also implement the AGN’s strategic plans insofar as it affects the European Region.

In the beautiful city of Palma we had the Annual European Meeting and I believe it was successful. We were lucky to have very good speakers both from among AGN members as well as excellent individuals from outside. The main topics of the meeting on Friday were The European Scene and the Accounting Profession (Martin Manuzi), The Management of Your Practice in Rough Times (Bente Lowendahl), XBRL (Lázló Bartok) and Letter from the ChairCommittee Reports (François Martin, Werner Kleinle/Ton Martens, Liam McQuaid.)

On Saturday morning Nancy Cruickshanks, the Chair of the Tax Committee, organised a tax session with many interesting presentations by AGN members (Kypros Protopapas, André Le Prince, Magnus Lovén and Nancy Cruickshanks.) We also had a chance to listen to a lecture on Building Relationships and Winning New Business (Clare Willis) which was well received.

On Saturday afternoon AGN members and companions toured Palma where everybody could meet informally. Altogether during the meeting there was sun, golf, a lot of fun and new contacts and ideas. I do think we have to thank Maria Rey of our Madrid based member, Canal Iranzo,as well as Penny and Marlijn for their involvement in the success of the meeting.

The next European meeting will take place in June 2010 in Krakow, Poland. I think that this is an excellent location for a meeting and I look forward to meeting you all and in particular our Eastern European colleagues at that meeting.

The European Conference concluded on Saturday and the AGN flag was transferred from Maria Rey (Spain) to Pierre Wautelet and Teresa Al Ahmad-Brzozowska (Poland). I do hope that many members will attend the meeting in Krakow.

As regards the membership we have new contacts in France (ACE Group), in the UK (Hazlems Fenton LLP) and in Germany (WLP GmbH). I welcome these new members and I look forward to working with them.

Finally, I would encourage you to participate in the AGN IFRS Seminar on the 18th September 2009 in Prague, which is free, and also please do respond to the Business Development Committee’s request for those who are interested in joining in the new entity tendering for EU work.

I look forwarding to meeting as many of you as possible in Chicago, here the AGN International Conference will be held this year and if not there, then in Krakow in Poland.

Liam McQuaid
Chair, European Region,
Duignan Carthy O’Neill,
Dublin, Ireland.
Tel: (+353 1) 668 2404
Fax: (+353 1) 676 5212
liammcquaid@dcon.ie

EUROPEAN REGIONAL MEETING 2009

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The 2009 AGN European Conference took place on the island of Mallorca. Palma, its capital, lies within a wide bay looking out to the calm waters from its tree-lined promenade and its historic city walls. This city, complete with its ancient monuments is perfectly equipped with all the modern facilities to provide everything necessary for every visitor and was the perfect place to celebrate the 14th European Regional Congress.

For the first time a Golf Tournament was arranged for the morning of the 11th of June at a Golf Course located close to the hotel. 9 people participated, making up 3 teams. The individual winner was Stuart Dey and the team event was won by Ellen Abma, François Shoukry and René Verbruggen.

The congress started with a Welcome Cocktail in the evening of the 11th of June that took place on the hotel terrace overlooking the bay of Palma. This was followed by an Al Fresco Barbecue Dinner. 87 delegates and companions representing 37 firms met old colleagues and friends and had the opportunity to meet representatives from some new member firms.

On Friday 12th of June, while the companions went on a tour to see the peaceful village of Valldemossa, the Carthusian Monastery and the special museum dedicated to Chopin and Georges Sand, the Palace del Rey Don Sancho and Costa Nord, the delegates attended the conference where there were speakers from AGN members and also professionals with very different backgrounds.

François Martin as Chair of the region welcomed everyone to Mallorca and introduced Maria Rey (Canal, Iranzo & Asociados) who did a short presentation about Mallorca, this was followed with a presentation by Martin Manuzi (ICAEW in Brussels) on The European Scene – what currently affects the accounting profession? Werner Kleinle (Wirtschaftstreuhand Group) then did an update on the Business Development Committee and introduced Ton Martens (Daamen & Van Sluis) who did a presentation on European Tender Work. This was well received and a vote from those present showed that the majority of firms were interested in this concept. There was a short break and then László Bartók (Consultatio Gazdasagi es Adougyi Tanacsado KFT) gave a very informative presentation on XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language). After lunch the remaining European committees did an update on their activities – Liam McQuaid (Duignan Carthy O’Neill), Chair of the Education Committee, François Martin (Caderas Martin), Chair of the Membership Development Committee and Nancy Cruickshanks (Shipleys LLP), Chair of the Tax Committee.

The final presentation of the day was done by Bente Løwendahl (BI Norwegian School of Management) and she presented a session on “Keeping a Strategic Focus for your Business in a Recession”. This was followed by group discussions and feedback at the end. It was an interesting exercise and confirmed the fact that many of the delegates from different countries are facing the same problems. The conference closed for the day with the Annual General Meeting and Extraordinary General Meeting where François Martin as Chair of the European Region updated the members on the financial position of the region and asked the members to vote on the resolutions. On Saturday 13th of June, the meeting was opened with presentations from three of the new member firms within the region. Alain Auvray and François Shoukry (ACE Groupe), Russell Tenzer and Mark Levitt (Hazlems Fenton LLP) and André Marius Le Prince (WLP GmbH) made short introductions about their firms.

After the introductions, it was the turn of the Tax Session that lasted until the end of the conference. The Taxation session included: Tax Developments in Cyprus (Kypros Protopapas of Joannides & Co), Three Business Opportunities for AGN Members (André Marius Le Prince of WLP GmbH), New VAT Rules from 01/01/10 (Nancy Cruickshanks of Shipleys LLP and Magnus Lovén of Frejs Revisionsbyrå AB). The final session of the day was presented by Clare Willis of Clare Willis Associates on Building Relationships and Winning New Business. This session was very well received and everyone had the opportunity to participate and discuss what type of “animal” they represented – cheetah, heron, chimpanzee or dolphin – you had to be there!

The closure of the conference was led by Liam McQuaid as the new chair of AGN INTERNATIONAL – EUROPE Ltd, who thanked all delegates for their participation and announced that next year the conference would be held in Krakow, Poland.

In the afternoon, delegates and companions were invited on a touristic tour around the city of Palma. This included a visit to Bellver Castle where the delegates were able to enjoy beautiful views of Palma Bay.

The gala dinner was celebrated at a traditional Finca (Son Termens), located at the foot of the hills situated behind Palma. During the Welcome drinks there were Mallorcan dancers and pipers that gave a display of traditional dancing. This was followed by a meal and dancing.

The conference was very successful and members were able to meet with their AGN colleagues. The opportunity was there for them to do business and make new contacts but also to have some fun at the same time.…. And all this, around the magic flavour of such a beautiful and extraordinary place.

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IRELAND
DUIGNAN CARTHY O’NEILL
Duignan Carthy O’Neill in Ireland are pleased to announce the appointment of Paul Dillon as Tax Partner. Paul will be responsible for the delivery of the tax service within the Firm.

Paul has several years experience dealing with a broad range of both local and international tax issues gained through working both in practice and industry.

Paul advises on all areas of taxes including Income Tax, Corporation Tax, Capital Taxes and VAT for a large number of Personal and Corporate clients based in Ireland and Internationally. He has lectured extensively on taxation matters and represents the Institute of Irish Chartered Accountants in dealings with the Irish Tax Authorities.

UK
SHIPLEYS LLP
One of our London based firms has opened an office last year in Birmingham. It is the expansion of their Corporate Recovery practice covering the Midlands area and Conrad Beighton is the director there.

The contact details for this office are:

2nd Floor3 Brindley Place
Birmingham
B1 2JB
Tel: (+44 121) 698 8566
Fax: (+44 121) 698 8600
E-mail: advice@shipleys.com

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