Brussels, 25/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The ambassadors of the member states to the EU (Coreper) reached a political agreement in principle on the revision of the shareholder rights' directive.
Under the compromise of the Latvian Presidency of the Council, only large companies floated on the stock exchange with market capitalisation in excess of €200 million will be subject to the obligation to put their salary policy to the vote of the general meeting of shareholders. This amounts to “around 10% of listed companies in Europe”, said one expert, who added that the threshold decided upon originates from a similar level laid down in the 'MiFiD' directive on the financial instruments markets. Countries such as France and Spain wanted to bring in this obligation for all listed companies, whilst Denmark and Italy took the view that the opinion of the general meeting of shareholders should continue to be no more than a guideline.
Negotiations with the European Parliament will start once the latter has adopted its position. A vote on the draft 'Cofferati' report by the 'legal affairs' committee has been postponed until 7 May (see EUROPE 11261). (Mathieu Bion)