Consolidated financial statements – a new reporting practice in the public sector

The reforms that have lately influenced the public sector determined several changes in the reporting system, causing the introduction of a new reporting practice in the public sector, namely the consolidated reports. These reports come to bring added value to the accounting and reporting system, but this practice is at the beginning and requires time in order to be taken over at international level. This paper aims to be a theoretical one, with slight empirical traces, analyzing the introduction and presentation of consolidated financial statements in the public sector in the European Union (EU) countries and highlighting the factors that have influenced the introduction of such reporting practice in these countries. As it can be observed from the analysis conducted, at EU level, this reporting practice is not widespread, but efforts are made in order to introduce and present a set of consolidated financial statements in the public sector, either at central, or at local level in more and more countries.