Shareholders’ rights in EU companies: Council formal adoption

The Council today adopted a directive aimed at strengthening shareholders’ engagement in big European companies.

The directive will encourage transparent and active engagement by shareholders of listed companies by reviewing the current Shareholders’ Rights Directive (2007/36/EC).

The financial crisis revealed that shareholders in many cases supported managers’ excessive short-term risk taking. The revised directive is intended to redress this situation and contribute to the sustainability of companies, which will result in growth and job creation.

The new directive establishes specific requirements in order to encourage shareholder long-term engagement and increase transparency. These requirements apply to:

  • remuneration of directors
  • identification of shareholders
  • facilitation of exercise of shareholders rights
  • transmission of information
  • transparency for institutional investors, asset managers and proxy advisors
  • related party transactions

Read the full press release here.