The European Commission has today adopted amendments to accounting standards, with the unanimous support of Member States. The changes to the accounting standards are intended to mitigate the consequences of the recent turbulence in financial markets. These amendments ensure that EU companies have the same flexibility as their American competitors to reclassify assets held-for-trading into the held-to-maturity category. The current financial crisis justifies the use of reclassification by companies. In these circumstances, financial institutions in the EU would no longer have to reflect market fluctuation in their financial statements for these kinds of assets. These changes will apply as from the third quarter of 2008.