Brussels, 15/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Council of Economy and Finance Ministers of the EU on Tuesday formally adopted the directive on prospectuses, in other words documents containing financial and non-financial data made available by a company to potential investors when shares are issued to raise capital, or if it wants to have its representative stock admitted into negotiations on a stock market. The adopted text, which brings together the 21 amendments made by the European Parliament (see EUROPE of 12 July, p.7, and 3 July, p.11), will create a "single passport for issuers", in virtue of which representative values will be proposed to investors either by a public offering or by admission to negotiation.
This means that once a prospectus has been approved by the competent authority of a Member State, it should be agreed to everywhere else in the EU. To protect investors, this approval will not, however, be granted unless the prospectus satisfies all the common European standards on publishable information content and methods for publication. The European Commission immediately welcomed the adoption of the Directive on prospectuses, which it believes will "guarantee better quality and easy access to disclosure documents , thanks to their centralised filing. The Directive only concerns initial disclosure requirements. Conditions for admission to listing remain subject to existing European and national requirements. Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein said that this demonstrated that with "the necessary willing, the Council, the Parliament and the Commission can overcome initial differences of view through a constructive spirit of compromise". He also hoped that they would have "the same determination to reach agreement on the proposed Directives concerning take-overs, transparency requirements for listed companies and investment services.