The European Commission will present its legislative package on company law in November, European Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová announced on Monday 4 September at the Company Law and Corporate Governance Conference in Tallinn, Estonia.
Setting out the objectives of the new package that was announced in the Commission work programme for 2017 (see EUROPE 11654) for business people, legal advisers and member state experts, Jourová said that the goal of the initiative was to facilitate the use of digital technologies throughout companies’ life cycles and also cross-border mergers and divisions.
Firstly, laying emphasis on digitalisation, she felt that the current EU company law acquis was to “old and outdated”. With processes within companies increasingly paperless and digital applications replacing and redefining the traditional office space, she regretted that company law often remains based on old traditions. “The digital age requires a change of mindset”, she argued.
She said that if businesses and governments were able to fully benefit from digital tools, Europe could unlock an estimated €415 billion per year for the economy and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
However, digitalisation alone will not be enough to foster cross-border mobility of companies, the commissioner warned, arguing for “a clear and predictable legal framework when wanting to operate across borders” to be put in place.
How can it be ensured that companies do not abuse the freedom of establishment guaranteed in the treaties? How can it be guaranteed that cross-border operations of companies do not have a negative impact on employees' rights? How can the interests of creditors be secured? How are the challenges of digitalisation to be addressed? Questions to which the forthcoming package will have to deliver a response, she said.
The public consultations on these issues closed in August and, according to the commissioner, the initial responses received make clear the many differing views in this area. “There is still a lot of work to do to create a balanced proposal”, she said. Estonian Justice Minister Urmas Reinsalu was “full of hope” for this package, which the Estonian Presidency awaits with impatience. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)