European Union – Companies. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling in which it decided that the principles that a true and fair view should be given and that valuation had to be made on a prudent basis set out in arts 2(3) and 31(1)(c) respectively of Council Directive (EEC) 8/660, as amended by Directive (EC) 2003/51, should be interpreted as not precluding an accounting method according to which a company issuing a share option could recognise as income the grant date price of that option in the course of the accounting year in which that option was exercised or at the end of its period of validity.