Brussels, 19/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - At a dinner organised by the British alliance of publicly quoted companies on Wednesday 17 September 2008, EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said he had seen several economic and financial crises in his working life and the current one was certainly one of the most serious he had experienced. He detailed work underway at the European Commission to revise various EU regulations in the domain of financial services. Changes in Directive 2003/71/EC on information to be supplied by quoted companies are positive but the Commission has identified some areas where the system is not working as well as one would hope, such as employee share ownership systems, he said. The Commission is also examining how Member States have been transposing Directive 2004/109/EC on transparency of information on issuers of securities. Charlie McCreevy said there were measures in the United Kingdom, for example, which were slightly stricter than EU legislation because the requirements from the previous system were kept in place when the EU Directive was transposed.
After adopting two draft directives in April 2008 to simplify red tape in the fields of company law and accountancy (see EUROPE 9645), the Commission is putting the finishing touches to two other measures to reduce red tape, one vis-a-vis company publication and translation requirements and one connected with accountancy. (M.B.)