At the conference organised by the Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE) on Thursday 21 September on the subject of digitalisation and company law, Corrado Malberti, Notary and Chair of the CNUE Company Law Working Group, gave an insight into the issues and prospects of the European Commission’s proposal for a directive as they relate to his profession.
This text, adopted by the Commission in March 2023 as part of the objectives set out in the ‘Digital Compass 2030’ (see EUROPE 12734/11), aims to modernise and harmonise this area of law in the digital age within the European Union, with the main goal of facilitating cross-border transactions, increasing transparency and significantly reducing red tape.
According to Mr Malberti, one of the main strengths of this initiative is the introduction of preventive control tools. “As the Commission said, we now have a tool in preventive checks (...) and more information, which is something we like, because we can use it in our practice”, he said.
And with good reason: in its proposal, the Commission aims to ensure that the data on companies in business registers is accurate, reliable and up-to-date, by “providing for checks of company information before it is entered in business registers in all Member States”.
Mr Malberti also spoke of the importance of the interconnection of commercial and company registers in the EU (BRIS), describing it as “positive” and fostering business partnerships of growing importance in the cross-border context.
However, questions remain, in particular regarding the implementation and clarification of certain aspects such as the ‘EU Company Certificate’, containing a set of basic information on companies, which will be available free of charge in all EU languages, the standard multilingual European digital power of attorney model, which will authorise a person to represent the company in another Member State, and the ‘Once-Only’ principle, whereby companies do not need to resubmit information when setting up a branch or company in another Member State, if this has already been done within the EU.
One of his main concerns was the clarity of information in the different registers and the need to standardise information across the European Union, due to “different rules with a different legal framework”. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)