Brussels, 21/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - On 20 December, the European Commission opened a public consultation on the future priorities of the action plan on the modernisation of company law and the reinforcement of corporate governance within the EU, which had been presented in May 2003. Recognising that the backdrop to this plan has changed since then, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Charlie McCreevy, states that possible changes to the plan should be considered, to steer it more towards the objectives of competitiveness laid down in the Lisbon agenda. "It is not a question of changing the action plan from top to bottom", Commissioner McCreevy's spokesperson told the press, "but of seeing whether it needs to be adapted to today's needs". The on-line consultation, which is available on the website of DG Internal Market, hopes to gather together the comments and observations of interested parties from the world of business, who will answer a series of 14 questions. As Mr McCreevy has received a great deal of criticism about the fact that these consultations are very often not long enough, the Commission has decided to extend it to three months. This means that interested parties have until 31 March 2006 to have their say (address: http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/ company/news/index_en.htm).