Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) reached political agreement in principle on Wednesday 5 December on the proposal for a directive to facilitate the use of digital tools for company registration and online information management (see EUROPE 12009).
The Council has kept the main elements of the text, but specifies in its text that the powers of Member States to refuse the registration of a company or branch in cases of fraud or abuse should not be affected by this Directive.
The Council text also adds that the online registration fees of companies must not exceed the total cost incurred by the Member State concerned and provides that more information on companies may be made available free of charge to interested parties in the business registers.
It also maintains the involvement of notaries and lawyers in the proceedings, provided that they can be carried out entirely online.
On the other hand, the Council has left more flexibility on the issue of dismissed directors, by providing that Member States are only required to provide information on such persons, in accordance with their national legislation. The text also specifies that this information may be limited to indicating whether or not the person is registered in a national register, while the exchange of additional information is entirely left to national law.
In terms of time limits, the Council text still leaves 5 working days for the competent authorities to process applications made using the standard online registration forms, while the time limit has been extended to 10 days for all other applications for registration.
Inter-institutional negotiations with the European Parliament, which adopted its position on 20 November last (see EUROPE 12141), will soon be able to begin. The Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) will vote on Thursday 6 December on its negotiating mandate, 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).
On the Council side, there will probably be no agreement on the 'mobility' aspect under the Austrian Presidency of the Council, according to a European source. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)