Strasbourg, 15/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 15 February, the EP endorsed the report by German Christian Democrat Klaus-Heiner Lehne on the draft directive on the exercise of shareholders rights to vote in quoted companies in the EU (see EUROPE 9356 and 9106). This report, the result of a compromise with the Council, open the way for the first reading adoption of the legislative text, something the rapporteur welcomed. “Not everyone is 100% satisfied but that is in the nature of a compromise”, he added. He recalled the main elements of the directive: possibility for shareholders to be represented at companies' general meetings while preventing conflicts of interest, improving involvement of shareholders in general meetings through the right to ask questions.
Represented by Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, the Commission, in response to concerns from the EP's economic and monetary affairs committee, said it would produce a recommendation on the issues related to the cross-border exercise of shareholders' rights to vote not covered in the directive. “We have already identified share lending as an area to be considered carefully in the context of the Commission's future recommendation on shareholders' rights,” he said. Another point to be dealt with in this non-binding instrument, he said, was the clarification of the role and the responsibilities of financial intermediaries, insofar as investors depend heavily on these intermediaries to obtain information and make their votes count. This element had also been highlighted by delegations to the Council, he said.
“We are voting for” the adoption of the directive, said Spanish Socialist Manuel Medina Ortega but “the EP is worried about using this vague instrument”, which a recommendation is. Equally unconvinced, Ieke van den Burg (PES, Netherlands) expressed the EP's wish to be a co-legislator in this issue. French Socialist Pervenche Berès welcomed the adoption of a tighter definition of the shareholder and advised the Commission to look at matters like salaried shareholders and the stability of shareholding in European companies. (mb)