Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-01-Speech-4-008"
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"en.20070201.3.4-008"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I feel particularly honoured to be able to see this topic discussed today, when you, Madam President, are chairing a sitting of this House for the first time.
The action plan on company law already envisaged examination of which additional forms of company might be considered as subjects for legislation within the European Union. As a result of the studies carried out at that time, these questions were, in essence, left open. Now, the Commission, a number of years ago, invited discussion of the company law action plan and subjected it to a wholesale revision. This House made a full contribution to this debate, and, following on from it, decided to produce and discuss an own-initiative report on the European private company.
Such is the background to this item on today’s agenda. We have considered this question carefully and organised in this House a hearing on the subject, which drove home the fact that there is a real need for that sort of European private company and for the Commission to initiate legislation to create it. Smaller industrial companies in particular – export-driven businesses that are at present obliged to set up subsidiaries and companies in other Member States and in accordance with those states’ laws on companies – would welcome with great enthusiasm the creation of a European legal form whereby they could organise their subsidiaries throughout the European Union. At present, they are in serious need of advice, which may well be good for the lawyers, but it does cost a lot of money, since there has to be, again and again, examination of individual cases to ascertain what rights and duties their directors and members of their supervisory boards actually have and what they have to do in order not to end up at odds with the law.
I think they will be able to avoid that if they can be offered a single European legal form that regulates a number of core matters, in particular directors’ powers and questions of liability, in one way at the European level and thus offers something to businesses. There is, then, absolutely no question of additional bureaucracy, for companies can decide for themselves whether they want this legal form or not; it is simply something of which they can avail themselves, something that plugs a real hole in the law left over after we created the European Limited Company for bigger firms.
Let me also say, by way of an aside, that the insufficient progress made in the past in the development of European company law is one explanation for the European Court of Justice’s rulings in such cases as
and this is where we can help to provide and create an exemplary structure in the European Union.
I believe that the Committee on Legal Affairs – which adopted this report by a large majority, or, indeed unanimously – has succeeded in finding a suitable compromise between the different approaches to the structure of such companies found in continental Europe on the one hand and in British legal thinking on the other, especially on the issue of equity, where we achieved a good compromise on the basis that equity ought, as a matter of principle, to exist, but without the obligation to make cash payments, which, as a means whereby registration may be made easier, is, in my view, a step in the right direction and also shows how it is possible for the Commission to submit a proposal with the Council then being able to find a rational compromise between the various legal traditions.
What we in the Committee on Legal Affairs – and I think, after today’s vote, this House too – expect of the Commission is that it should, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty, with our Rules of Procedure, and with the interinstitutional agreement, stir itself into action and, within the foreseeable future, take definite steps to put a definite proposal for legislation before this House and the Council.
As I draw to a close, I would like to mention another consideration that has had some input into the amendments, that being the debate on workers’ participation in decision-making. Let me make perfectly plain something that was not a bone of contention in our deliberations, namely that nobody is seeking to restrict workers’ rights in any way whatever. In so far as they are guaranteed at the national level, they are also to be guaranteed and maintained when this legislative project is put into effect. This is something on which there have been a number of amendments, which I do not regard as crucial, for they all have the same end in mind, that of protecting workers’ rights.
One final comment – and yes, I do mean final, for I will then have used up my five minutes: I note with pleasure that the German Presidency of the Council has declared the European Private Company to be one of its priorities, and so I assume that the Council, too, will be as supportive of this as – I hope – an overwhelming majority in this House is about to be."@en1
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"Inspire Art"1
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