Your draftsman supports the aims to reduce administrative burdens and costs, improve the quality of legislation, and to update existing rules in order to make them clearer. Moreover, your draftsman believes that new technology should be used to its fullest in pursuit of limiting administrative burdens and costs. However, it must be taken into account that Internet penetration in most EU countries is still lower than 50%. If the information is only available on a single electronic platform, some EU citizens who cannot have access to Internet or who prefer to use more traditional forms of communication will not be able to receive information related to companies in their local area. In consequences, Member States should have the possibilities to organize the disclosure of information through other complementary means under specific conditions.

Both the First Company law Directive and the Eleventh Company law Directive has been identified as candidate for fast-track-simplification.

In relation to the First Company law Directive, it is in particular the obligation for companies to publish, in the national gazettes, certain information that has to be entered into the Member States' commercial register. This is in particular information about the company's foundation, later changes to this information and the annual accounts that have to be published on a yearly basis. In most cases, this publication in the national gazette entails additional costs for the companies without providing real added value in times where company registries make their information available online.

In relation to the Eleventh Company law Directive, it is in particular the translation requirements, in national law, for documents to be filed to the branch's register. When registering a branch, companies need to file certain information contained in the companies register file also with the register of the branch. This often leads to a double cost for companies as they not only have to ensure the translation of certain documents into the language of the Member State where the branch is situated but also have to comply with sometimes excessive requirements for certification and/or notarisation of that translation.

Your draftsman considers that some legal obligations to provide information have become needlessly time-consuming, excessively complicated, or useless. By reducing unnecessary reporting, translation and certification requirements the costs of production will be reduced and allow additional investment and innovation, which in turn should improve productivity and overall competitiveness.

Therefore your draftsman supports the Commissions proposal. Nevertheless, your draftsman underlines that simplification and reduction of administrative burdens and costs must not undermine quality of languages, cultural heritage and diversity. In this context your draftsman considers that the community’s approach to multilingualism must be underlined in the final text of the directive.


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