Strasbourg, 04/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Parliament rejected the common proposal of Directive on public bids defined on 6 June by the Council and the Parliament, by 273 votes in favour, 273 against and 22 abstentions, with the opposed votes winning in this case in accordance with Parliament ruling. Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein immediately said he was "very disappointed" with this result, especially after an equal vote that could have been modified by the presence of a single MEP. He regretted that twelve years of discussion in Council had been reduced to nothing, and refused to specify whether he plans to present a new proposal in the near future. The Commission considers that there must be a framework for public cross-border bids but it is out of the question to represent the same thing after this vote, he said. He remarked that the Council's position changed during the procedure, since "Germany has changed sides" by opposing the Council's common position that it had initially approved, and that the "large German companies (…) have quit the modern economic philosophy to fall back on corporatist ideas that prevailed in the past".
After the vote, Scottish Nationalist Neil MacCormick reproached the Parliament President, Nicole Fontaine, for not having taken part. Ms Fontaine replied that, to date, all the presidents of the EP have abstained from taking part in voting, except in a small number of cases (timetable of sessions, Nice Treaty, …). While regretting the result, the president of the Liberal Group, Pat Cox, welcomed the "good interpretation of the regulation" by Ms Fontaine, and invited the Commission to double its efforts to present a revised proposal. Spanish Socialist Enrique Baron Crespo welcomed the negative result which demonstrates that the Council and the Commission must take the Parliament's position into account. The spokesperson for Ms Fontaine stressed that, while the president regrets this result, this proves that Council has not yet understood what true co-decision culture is.
During the vote, Germans, Dutch, Belgians, Austrians, and Greeks voted against the common proposal of Directive, while the British, of all groups, voted in favour. The 273 votes in favour included: all the Liberal Groups and the Union for a Europe of Nations Group; the elected members of the French hunters and three Danes within the EDD Group; the French non-attached on the Pasqua list and the Austrian FPÖ elected members; for the EPP, the British, Portuguese, Finish, Swedish, Luxembourg nationals and a majority of French and Spanish; for the PES, British, French, Italians; the Bonino List; for the Greens/ALE Group, three British, three Spanish regionalists, the Finnish President Ms Hautala, and Swedish Ms Schörling. The 273 votes against included: practically all the GUE/NGL Group, with the exception of its Swedish members in particular: and the very large part of the Greens Group, within the EPP Group, the Germans, Forza Italia, the Greeks, the Austrians, the Belgians and the Dutch, as well as part of the French including Bayrou, Sarnez, Morillon; within the Socialist Group, the Germans, the Spanish, the Greeks, the Belgians, the Dutch; la Lega Nord and the Movimento Sociale Italiano and Vlaams Blok.
The proposal of Directive proposed in 1989 by the Commission fixed minimum common rules for the launching and the management of public offerings, while protecting minority shareholders. It would have made it compulsory for companies wishing to take over the control of a company to present an offer "proposing to all shareholders acquisition of all their shares" and to inform shareholders in time through a "bid document". Germany and the Netherlands does not for now make a public bid compulsory when acquisitions are made. Above all, the text made it an obligation for the administrative board of the company that is the object of bidding to consult shareholders before adopting defence measures, the main point of divergence between the Council and Parliament that hoped to leave more margin of manoeuvre for management boards of companies that are the object of bids. Rapporteur Klaus-Heiner Lehne felt that the companies targeted would have been defenceless against the offensive of a company that could be protected (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.9). Another difference was on the information of company employees aimed at by a bid: the common proposal of Directive provides solely for their "information" whereas one part of the MEPs and European trade unions hoped they would also be "consulted" (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.11).