This consultative document seeks comments on the European Commission’s proposal for a Directive on Shareholder Rights, including the likely costs and benefits of the Directive indicated in our partial Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) at Annex A. Views will inform the UK Government’s ongoing negotiations.
The proposal aims to improve corporate governance in EU companies trading on regulated markets by enhancing the rights shareholders are able to exercise. In particular, it seeks to achieve this by ensuring that shareholders owning shares in companies registered and listed in another Member State may vote without difficulty at company meetings. Shareholders, no matter where in the EU they reside, will benefit from timely access to complete information and simple means to exercise voting rights at a distance.
The process of voting at company general meetings differs widely across Member States, and is often a complex procedure. It is further complicated when shares are held across EU borders. The Commission believes that existing legislation at EU level does not address sufficiently the cross-border voting problems. At present, under the “Transparency Directive”, companies are required to make a limited amount of information available in relation to company meetings; but the Transparency Directive does not deal with the shareholder voting process.
