Strasbourg, April 22 2009 - The European Parliament today approved, as part of the package entitled “Measures against the financial crisis”, the report of MEP Renate Weber, concerning the Directive for simplifying the reporting procedures in case of the mergers and divisions of European commercial companies.

“The objective of the new Directive is to reduce by 25% the administrative costs of European companies by 2012, with the aim to consolidate competitiveness within the Union”, explains Renate Weber.

According to estimates, the commercial companies of EU Member States will be able to save hundreds of millions of euros per year due to the new measures, which will become effective on June 30, 2011.

“I believe we are in a time when we have to do our best to keep the European commercial companies alive and especially to find the proper incentives that turns them into successful businesses, capable of providing numerous work places. This initiative is all the more important at this time because of the crisis we are going through”, rapporteur Renate Weber says.

The largest savings, around EUR 154 Million/year will be made due to the fact that the companies that merge or divide will no longer have to pay independent experts to elaborate the reports, as it was stipulated in the previous European regulations.

Small companies will be the first to benefit from these new measures, seeing as they are currently paying 10 times more than large companies, in order to observe the European legislation related to the reports that have to be elaborated. 

The European companies will save additional money by using new technologies. Thus, the general rule stipulates that companies no longer have to present their shareholders with documents (financial situation, merger justification, etc.) on paper if they can be consulted and downloaded from the website of the respective company or of an authorized body, such as the Registry of Commerce.

EU Member States can, however, dispose that the commercial companies have to issue these documents at their headquarters, in order to be consulted by the shareholders.
Member States and companies will have the right to decide whether it s necessary to publish the information in the local press, especially in areas with no Internet access, which makes it even harder for shareholders to have access to the information.