The issue of reliable macroeconomic measures led the European Commission to the hypothesis of adopting a set of international Accounting standards to be used in the Government Accounting of European public administrations (EPSAS – European Public Sector Accounting Standards). Right to the start, international bodies, standard setters and scholars engaged in an intense debate resulting in different points of view and, finally, in an institutional deadlock. This contribution is not concerned with the merits of accounting standards specifically, but addresses the question of the account reliability from somewhat different, prodromal perspectives: the purposes of “national accounting” and those of “governmental accounting”, the consequent methodological approaches and those of the related accounting instruments. To this aim, a theoretical framework is proposed by distinguishing the teleological from the instrumental levels of the analysis and adding the related question of the reporting entity and tiers of government. The in-depth study of macro-accounting’s rationale and its double entry book-keeping method together with the application of the ad hoc framework made it possible to show that no regulation, even rule-based, can avoid the real questions concerning reliability of national accounts; that is the statistical basis of its entries, the surreptitious squaring of accounts, the lack of private savings notes as well as those of the assets of the entire nations. The paper concludes by arguing that the problem of EPSAS rests on erroneous assumptions. It also calls for new contributions dealing with national accounting logics and methods as it was a long-neglected area by business studies and its rediscovery can contribute to the European policy agenda.
KEYWORDS: Contabilità nazionali, Contabilità pubblica, EPSAS, SNA, ESA
