Europe: Commission publishes governance proposals - remuneration, shareholder rights, disclosure, Societas Unius Personae

The European Commission has today published a proposal for revising the Shareholder Rights Directive, a Recommendation on corporate governance reporting and a proposal for a Directive on single member private limited liability companies: see here.

The proposed revisions to the Shareholder Rights Directive include changes to the disclosure obligations in respect of a remuneration and the introduction of a binding vote on remuneration policy for certain companies. It also imposes new disclosure obligations on proxy advisors and the requirement for shareholder approval of certain related party transactions. For further information see: FAQs | Proposed Directive (pdf) | Impact assessment: summary (doc) and full text (doc).

The purpose of the Recommendation is to provide guidance on improving the quality of corporate governance reporting for those companies required to publish a corporate governance statement under Article 20 of Directive 2013/34/EU. A copy of the Recommendation is available here (doc).

The proposed Directive on single member private limited liability companies will require Member States to make available, through their individual legal systems, a single member private limited liability company, with several harmonised features and a common name (Societas Unius Personae, or SUP). The SUP would have a minimum capital requirement of one euro. For further information see: FAQs | Proposed Directive (doc) | Impact assessment: summary (doc) and full text (doc).