Brussels, 13/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - The German government doe not intend to amend the "Volkswagen law", which allows the region of Lower Saxony to keep control of the car manufacturer, with just 18ù shares in the company. On Monday the German minister for justice, Brigitte Zypries, declared in a communication that the "German government thinks that there is no doubt that the VW law is in compliance with European law".
Germany is expected to respond before the 13 July to a warning emitted by the European Commission which considers that the Volkswagen Law is an obstacle to the free movement of capital in the same way as the "Golden Share" or special shares are.
The Commission is expected to rule in September or October on whether it will go to the Court in this highly sensitive case in Germany. The spokesperson for internal market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein indicated that they were going to study the issue carefully. Last June, the Commissioner declared in the German press that he intended to pursue proceedings.
The Commission is particularly critical of the three elements in the law adopted in 1960 for guaranteeing jobs in the region: 1) a shareholder that has more than 20% of shares with voting rights in VW cannot exercise more than 20% of voting rights in the general assembly; 2) important decision for the company have to be approved by at least 80% of shareholders; 3) the Lower Saxony region has two seats out of the ten shareholder representatives on the board of directors.
The Commission is drawing from the Court's jurisprudence, which ruled against measures taken by countries for controlling decision taken by a company in an Italian case in May 2000 or in Portugal and France in June 2002. The Court ruled that such provisions could be justified, as in the Belgian energy legislation case, when they protect national interests but are transparent.