On Wednesday 18 April, the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users, BETTER FINANCE, highlighted the shortcomings in the Commission's draft implementing regulation in the framework of the revised directive on shareholders' rights (SRD II), which was submitted for consultation on 11 April.
“The revised Directive itself unfortunately only provided limited improvements to shareholders' rights, as important barriers to cross-border shareholder engagement within the EU remain in place”, it explains in a press release. The organisation sees this implementing regulation as the last opportunity to guarantee the rights of individual shareholders before its implementation, which has been scheduled for June 2019.
The Federation's recommendations include the introduction of a 'record date', which is a snapshot of the shareholders on a date proceeding that of the general meeting, which will be standard throughout Europe, to be set at least five calendar days before the general meeting.
The organisation also regrets that the definition of the term shareholder has been left to the discretion of the member states and the fact that “intermediaries will still, by and large, be able to charge higher fees to shareholders wanting to exercise their cross-border voting rights”.
The draft text is open to public consultation until 9 May and can be viewed at: https://bit.ly/2HeAxRY . (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)