Netherlands: Cabinet endorses updated Code

Last December the Dutch Corporate Governance Monitoring Commission published an updated edition of the Dutch Corporate Governance Code. The updated code has received the endorsement of the Cabinet. In a press release published last month by the Ministry of Finance it was stated:

The Cabinet will statutorily assign the Code as the code of conduct to be complied with to replace the Tabaksblat Code of 2003. The Code includes valuable additions in the fields of executive pay, risk management in listed companies, the diversity of members of supervisory boards, the shareholders' responsibility, take-overs and socially sound entrepreneurship. The updated Code puts in further details of the accountability of management boards, of supervisory boards and of shareholders of listed companies and pays more attention to the stimulation of 'desired behaviour'".

The press release also stated that the Cabinet intends to: [a] oblige instiutional shareholders to report on their compliance with those parts of the new code which apply to them and [b] appoint a new Commission, taking the place of the Frijns Committee, to monitor compliance with the code.