Brussels, 26/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - On the back of their recent victory on the future introduction of the European private company status, the MEPs of the Parliamentary committee on legal affairs of the European Parliament on Thursday 25 October withdrew their request for the Commission to act with a view to legislating on the transfer within the European Union of the registered headquarters of companies (see EUROPE 9516). Referring to a “gap which is still present” in the European legislative instrument on company law, the German member Klaus-Heiner Lehne, speaking on behalf of the EPP-ED group, spoke of the need to “give companies the ability to move freely within the European Union as provided for in the Treaties”. Along the same lines, Spanish Socialist Manuel Medina Ortega pleaded in favour of a specific directive on the transfer of the headquarters of a enterprise within the EU, as the simple existence of primary law - the European Treaty - would, in his view, lead to “differing interpretations, which would not be in the spirit of the internal market”.
On this occasion, the European Commission seems to have no wish to give in to the Parliamentary sirens. “We have suggested that we could go with a directive”, acknowledged Benita Ferrero-Waldner, but the economic analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of a possible legislative initiative failed to give satisfaction. With the entry into force, at the end of 2007, of directive 2005/56/EC on cross-border mergers of capital companies, “limited companies and small and medium-sized enterprises will be able to transfer their headquarters” within the EU, said the European Commissioner. Burdensome rules for businesses, said Mr Lehne, as a company must first create a subsidiary in another member state and then merge with it in order to transfer its headquarters there. The German Christian Democrat went on to warn the Commission of the possibility of the EP drafting an own-initiative report if the European institution delays in proposing the 14th directive on company law. In the meantime, the commissioner stated that the proposal of the Commission bringing in a statute for the European private company would be ready “no later than mid-2008”. (M.B.)