The MEPs of the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) adopted, on Tuesday 20 November, by a large majority (22 votes in favour and 1 abstention) the draft report prepared by Tadeusz Zwiefka (EPP, Poland) on new rules to facilitate the use of digital tools for online company registration (see EUROPE 12009).
Tadeusz Zwiefka wanted to remain as faithful as possible to the Commission's original proposal. The final report maintains the scope of the Directive, in particular on the form of the companies covered and the opening of the procedure to legal and natural persons wishing to start their business in another EU country (see EUROPE 12103).
However, a distinction has been made within the deadlines: the competent authorities will still have 5 working days to process the application of a natural person using the online registration templates, while the deadline has been extended to 10 days for all other registration applications.
The text also specifies that the Directive does not aim to harmonise the procedural and substantive law of the Member States. It also gives them the possibility to develop and adopt additional electronic controls of identity and legality, which may include identity verification by video conference.
MEPs also wanted to ensure that the clause providing for the possibility for a Member State to require the physical presence of the applicant remains exceptional, only when ‘overriding reasons relating to the public interest’ justify it, and is based on a case-by-case review.
The vote on the negotiating mandate, on the other hand, was postponed to 6 December, at the same time as the vote on the other part of the company law package: the draft report prepared by Evelyn Regner (S&D, Austria) on the proposal harmonising procedures on cross-border transfers of companies (see EUROPE 12081).
The vote on this draft report had to be postponed because the opinion of the Committee on Social Affairs (EMPL), also responsible, was only adopted last Thursday and has yet to be incorporated into the final report.
On the EU Council side, the 'digitalisation' part could be submitted to the Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) for a negotiating mandate on 28 November, while the work is not yet finalised on the 'mobility' part. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)