Brussels, 06/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, will present, on Tuesday 10 January, the proposal for a directive aimed at facilitating the crossborder exercise of voting rights enjoyed by shareholders of the companies quoted. Already expected for end 2005, the proposed legislation will give details of measures to be taken at European level especially for allowing shareholders of a company to vote without having to be present at the general shareholders' assembly and to have access in good time to any information relating to the general assembly. Last September, the Commission published the results of the public consultation of May 2005 on exercise of voting rights (see EUROPE 8947). It states that most of the participants at the consultation stress the essential contribution that shareholders make to real corporate governance. They consider that the facilitation and the promotion of shareholders' voting rights through the introduction of minimum European standards should contribute to strengthening internal controls in companies and, in return, make new detailed rules unnecessary. In June 2005, the European Corporate Governance Forum also stated it was in favour of a targeted directive (see EUROPE 8978).