Fuente: © European Union
http://europa.eu.int

EU: Corporate governance and company law: Commission takes action to ensure that five Member States implement EU rules

/noticias.info/ The European Commission has decided to address reasoned opinions to the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands and Poland over their failure to implement in national law within the prescribed deadlines the Directive on transparency obligations of listed companies. Additionally, the Commission has decided to bring a case before the European Court of Justice against Italy over its failure to fully implement the Directive setting out disclosure requirements in respect of listed and non-listed companies.

The Directive on transparency obligations of listed companies (Directive 2004/109/EC) requires issuers of securities in regulated markets within the EU to ensure appropriate transparency for investors through a regular flow of information by disclosing periodic and ongoing regulated information and by disseminating such information to the public throughout the EU. Regulated information consists of financial reports, information on major holdings of voting rights and information disclosed pursuant to the Market Abuse Directive. For this, shareholders, or natural persons or legal entities holding voting rights or financial instruments that result in an entitlement to acquire existing shares with voting rights, should also inform issuers of the acquisition of or other changes in major holdings in companies so that the latter are in a position to keep the public informed.

This directive was due to be implemented by 20 January 2007, although the deadline for the implementation of the Commission's implementing measures which supplement this text (Commission Directive 2007/14/EC of 8 March 2007) was 9 March 2008. The Commission is taking action against the four Member States (Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands and Poland) which, as of 9 March 2008, had not yet transposed the directive on transparency obligations of listed companies.

The Directive setting out disclosure requirements in respect of certain types of companies (Directive 2003/58/EC) modernised the so-called 1st Company Law Directive (68/151/EEC) notably by facilitating the electronic filing of documents by companies with the business/commercial registries. The Directive also allows interested parties to obtain copies of such documents from the register in electronic form. Member States were required to comply with this Directive by 31 December 2006. The Commission is bringing a case against Italy for failure to fully implement this Directive.

The latest information on infringement proceedings concerning all Member States can be found at:

http://ec.europa.eu/community_law/index_en.htm notas_de_prensa_archivo