Brussels, 26/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Corporate Governance Forum endorsed, on Tuesday 24 March, a public statement on the main principles that should govern the remuneration of executive directors. The Forum considers that a Community directive would be an appropriate way to ensure that listed companies disclose their remuneration policy and the pay of individual directors. Examples of the best practices that the Forum lists in its statement are that: - the level of variable pay should be reasonable in relation to the total pay level; - variable pay should be linked to factors that represent real growth of the company and real creation of wealth for the company and its shareholders; - shares granted to executive directors under long-term incentive plans should vest only after a period during which performance conditions are met; - and severance pay for executive directors should be restricted to two years of annual remuneration and should not be paid if the termination is for poor performance. (http: //ec.europa.eu/internal_market/company/ecgforum/index_en.htm). (L.C./transl.jl)