Europe: European Private Company Statute

In a speech delivered in Athens on 16 May, European Internal Market Commissioner McCreevy provided further information about the proposed European Private Company Statute. Commissioner McCreevy observed:

In the field of company law, we are working on the upcoming proposal for a European Private Company Statute (or SPE). It should provide small enterprises that could not benefit from the European (Public) Company Statute with a legal form specifically designed for them and allow them to carry out their business using a single company form across the EU. As you know, business has been calling for this for many years, and I now intend to present a proposal on 25 June ... As with any important proposal in the field of company law, there are many important features to this upcoming initiative, but I would particularly highlight the following elements of it to you:

• I believe the European Private Company should be accessible to single and multiple shareholders, that is, to natural and legal persons alike, without any cross-border requirement;
  
• It should be capable of being set up from scratch, by the merger of existing companies or by transformation of an existing company;
  
• In accordance with the case law of the Court of Justice, a European Private Company should be free to have its headquarters in any EU Member State, regardless of its place of registration. In other words, the company could be registered in one Member State while conducting the entirety of its activity in another; it should also be able to merge and transfer its registered office cross-border;
  
• Its shareholders should have the freedom to determine the internal organisation of the company; and finally,
  
• Rules on employee participation in companies set up using the SPE Statute should draw as much as possible from existing solutions.

I think you will agree that this is an ambitious, and business-friendly, piece of legislation that we are about to come forward with..."

For background information, see here.

Postscript (25 June 2008): Proposals have now been published - see this post.