Press Release: Corporate governance: Commission proposals to make it easier for shareholders to exercise their rights within the EU

The European Commission on 10 January 2006 presented a proposal for a Directive to facilitate the cross-border exercise of shareholders' rights in listed companies, through the introduction of minimum standards. The proposed Directive was seeking to ensure that shareholders, no matter where in the EU they reside, would have timely access to complete information and simple means to exercise certain rights – notably voting rights – at a distance.

European Commission: Memo: MEMO/06/3, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on shareholders' rights, 10.1.05 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/06/3&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=fr

European Commission: COM(2005) 685 final, Proposal for a Directive ... on the exercise of voting rights by shareholders of companies having their registered office in a Member State and whose shares are admitted to trading on a regulated market, 5.1.05 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2005/com2005_0685en01.pdf

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