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Awaiting Parliament 1st reading / single reading / budget 1st stage



2014/0121(COD) Corporate governance: long-term shareholder engagement; corporate governance statement
Next event: Indicative plenary sitting date, 1st reading/single reading 2015/07/07
RoleCommitteeRapporteurShadows
Opinion ECON LUDVIGSSON Olle (S&D)
Opinion ECON
Opinion IMCO
Lead JURI COFFERATI Sergio Gaetano (S&D) TOTI Giovanni (EPP), KARIM Sajjad (ECR), WIKSTRÖM Cecilia (ALDE), MAŠTÁLKA Jiří (GUE/NGL), DURAND Pascal (Verts/ALE), FERRARA Laura (EFD)
Lead JURI
Opinion LIBE
Lead committee dossier: JURI/8/00435
Legal Basis TFEU 114, TFEU 150

Activites

  • 2015/07/07 Indicative plenary sitting date, 1st reading/single reading
  • 2015/05/12 Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading
    • A8-0158/2015 summary
  • 2015/05/07 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • 2015/03/12 Referral to associated committees announced in Parliament
  • 2014/10/20 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • 2014/04/16 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • 2014/04/09 Legislative proposal published
    • COM(2014)0213 summary
    • DG {'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/', 'title': 'Enterprise and Industry'}, BIEŃKOWSKA Elżbieta

Documents

  • Legislative proposal published: COM(2014)0213
  • Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A8-0158/2015
AmendmentsDossier
543 2014/0121(COD)
2015/01/07 ECON 136 amendments...
source: 546.552
2015/02/06 JURI 206 amendments...
source: 549.129
2015/02/25 JURI 201 amendments...
source: 549.159

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)

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  • The Committee on Legal Affairs adopted the report by Sergio Gaetano COFFERATI (S&D, IT) on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2007/36/EC as regards the encouragement of long-term shareholder engagement and Directive 2013/34/EU as regards certain elements of the corporate governance statement.

    The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, exercising its prerogatives as an associated committee under Parliament’s Rule 54 of the Rules of Procedure was consulted to give an opinion on the report.

    Purpose: Members stipulated that the amended Directive shall: (i) establish specific requirements in order to facilitate shareholders' engagement in the long term, including the identification of shareholders, the transmission of information and the facilitation of the exercise of shareholder rights; (ii) create transparency on the engagement policies of institutional investors and asset managers and on the activities of proxy advisors and; (iii) lay down certain requirements with regard to directors' remuneration and related party transaction.

    Support for long-term shareholding:  in order to provide more stability for companies, Member States shall put in place a mechanism in order to promote shareholding on a long-term basis and foster long-term shareholders. The qualifying period in order to be considered a long term shareholder shall not be less than two years.

    The mechanism shall include one or more of the following advantages for long term shareholders: additional voting rights; tax incentives; loyalty dividends; loyalty shares.

    Transparency of asset managers: asset managers should be required to publicly disclose annually how their investment strategy and the implementation thereof is in accordance with the asset management arrangement and how the investment strategy and decisions contributes to medium to long-term performance of the assets of the institutional investor. Moreover, information on the portfolio composition, on the portfolio turnover costs, on conflicts of interest which have arisen and how they have been dealt with should be disclosed.

    Transparency of proxy advisors: proxy advisors should adopt and follow a code of conduct. Departures from the code should be declared and explained, together with any alternative solutions which have been adopted. Proxy advisors should report on the application of their code of conduct on a yearly basis.

    Approval of the remuneration policy by stakeholders: the remuneration policy for company directors should also contribute to the long-term growth of the company so that it corresponds to a more effective practice of  corporate governance and is not linked entirely or largely to short-term investment objectives. Companies should establish a remuneration policy as regards directors and submit it to a binding vote of the general meeting of shareholders. Any change to the policy shall be voted on at the general meeting of shareholders and the policy shall be submitted in any case for approval by the general meeting at least every three years.

    Directors’ performance should be assessed using both financial and non-financial performance criteria, including environmental, social and governance factors.

    The remuneration policy shall set clear criteria for the award of fixed and variable remuneration, including all bonuses and all benefits in whatever form.

    For variable remuneration, the criteria also include consideration of programmes relating to corporate social responsibility and the results achieved in this regard should be taken into consideration. Member States shall ensure that share-based remuneration does not represent the most significant part of directors' variable remuneration.

    In addition, the remuneration policy shall:

    • indicate the main terms of the contracts of directors, including its duration and the applicable notice periods and terms of termination and payments linked to termination of contracts and the characteristics of supplementary pension or early retirement schemes;
    • specify the company's procedures for the determination of the remuneration of directors, including the role and functioning of the remuneration committee;
    • explain the specific decision-making process leading to its determination.

    Member States shall ensure that relevant stakeholders, in particular employees, are entitled, via their representatives, to express a view on the remuneration report before it is submitted to the shareholders.

    Additional disclosure for large undertakings: in the notes to the financial statements, large undertakings shall, in addition to the information required under the Directive, publicly disclose non-essential information in respect of the following matters, specifying by Member State and by third country in which it has a subsidiary.

    Undertakings whose average number of employees on a consolidated basis during the financial year does not exceed 500 and, on their balance sheet dates, do not exceed on a consolidated basis either a balance sheet total of €86 million or a net turnover of €100 million shall be exempt from the obligation.

    Additional disclosure for issuers: Member States shall require each issuer to publicly disclose annually, specifying by Member State and by third country in which it has a subsidiary, the following information on a consolidated basis for the financial year: (i) name(s), (ii) nature of activities and geographical location; (iii) turnover; (iv) number of employees on a full time equivalent basis; (v) tax on profit or loss; (vii) public subsidies received.

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  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee: LIBE
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activities/0/docs/0/text
  • PURPOSE: to revise Directive 2007/36/EC on the exercise of certain rights of shareholders in listed companies in order to contribute to their long-term sustainability.

    PROPOSED ACT: Directive of the European Parliament and the Council.

    ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

    BACKGROUND: Directive 2007/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishes requirements in relation to the exercise of certain shareholder rights attaching to voting shares in relation to general meetings of companies which have their registered office in a Member State and whose shares are admitted to trading on a regulated market situated or operating within a Member State.

    The financial crisis has revealed that shareholders in many cases supported managers' excessive short-term risk taking. Moreover, there is clear evidence that institutional investors and their asset managers do not sufficiently focus on the real (long-term) performance of companies, but often on share-price movements and the structure of capital market indexes, which leads to suboptimal return for the end beneficiaries of institutional investors and puts short-term pressure on companies.

    The past years have highlighted certain corporate governance shortcomings in European listed companies. These shortcomings relate to different actors: companies’ and their boards, shareholders (institutional investors and asset managers) and proxy advisors.

    Five main issues have been identified:

    • insufficient engagement of institutional investors and asset managers;
    • insufficient link between pay and performance of directors;
    • lack of shareholder oversight on related party transactions;
    • inadequate transparency of proxy advisors;
    • difficult and costly exercise of rights flowing from securities for investors.

    Stakeholders were consulted on two Green Papers ("Corporate governance in financial institution" and "The EU corporate governance framework").

    Based on these consultations and further analysis, the Commission's Action Plan: European company law and corporate governance - a modern legal framework for more engaged shareholders and sustainable companies provides the Commission’s roadmap in the area, based the two objectives of enhancing transparency and engaging shareholders.

    IMPACT ASSESSMENT: a range of options, including no policy change, have been considered to address each of the presented problems. The preferred option is the following:

    1) mandatory transparency of institutional investors and asset managers on their voting and engagement and certain aspects of asset management arrangements;

    2) disclosure of the remuneration policy and individual remunerations, combined with a shareholder vote;

    3) additional transparency and an independent opinion on more important related party transactions and submission of the most substantial transactions to shareholder approval;

    4) binding disclosure requirements on the methodology and conflicts of interests of proxy advisors;

    5) creating a framework to allow listed companies to identify their shareholders and requiring intermediaries to rapidly transmit information related to shareholders and to facilitate the exercise of shareholder rights.

    CONTENT: the main objectives of the proposal are as follows:

    Improving engagement of institutional investors and asset managers: the proposal should increase the transparency of institutional investors and asset managers. They will be required to develop a policy on shareholder engagement, which should contribute to managing actual or potential conflicts of interests with regard to shareholder engagement. They should in principle disclose to the public their engagement policy, how it has been implemented and the results thereof. Where institutional investors or asset managers decide not to develop an engagement policy and/or decide not to disclose the implementation and results thereof, they shall give a clear and reasoned explanation as to why this is the case.

    Strengthening the link between pay and performance of directors: the proposal aims at creating more transparency on remuneration policy and the actual remuneration awarded to directors and creating a better link between pay and performance of directors by improving shareholder oversight of directors’ remuneration.

    Shareholders should have the right to approve the remuneration policy and to vote on the remuneration report. All benefits of directors in whatever form will be included in the remuneration policy and report. The proposal does not regulate the level of remuneration and leaves decisions on this to companies and their shareholders.

    Improving shareholder oversight on related party transactions: the proposal requires listed companies that related party transactions representing more than 5% of the companies’ assets or transactions which can have a significant impact on profits or turnover to submit these transactions to the approval of shareholders and may not unconditionally conclude it without their approval.

    For smaller related party transactions that represent more than 1% of their assets, listed companies shall publicly announce such transactions at the time of the conclusion of the transaction, and accompany the announcement by a report from an independent third party.

    In order to target only transactions that could be most disadvantageous for minority shareholders and to keep administrative burden limited Member States should be allowed to exclude transactions entered into between the company and members of its group that are fully owned by the listed company.

    Enhancing transparency of proxy advisors: the proposal will require proxy advisors to adopt and implement adequate measures to guarantee that their voting recommendations are accurate and reliable, based on a thorough analysis of all the information that is available to them and are not affected by any existing or potential conflict of interest or business relationship. Proxy advisors are required to publicly disclose certain key information related to the preparation of their voting recommendations.

    Facilitating the exercise of rights flowing from securities for investors: it is estimated that non-national shareholders hold some 44% of the shares in EU listed companies. The proposal requires Member States to ensure that intermediaries offer to listed companies the possibility to have their shareholders identified. Intermediaries should, on the request of such a company communicate without undue delay the name and contact details of the shareholders.

    The proposal also requires that intermediaries facilitate the exercise of the rights by the shareholder, including the right to participate and vote in general meetings and requires companies to confirm the votes cast in general meetings by or on behalf of shareholders.

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Commissioner
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  • date: 2014-04-09T00:00:00 docs: celexid: CELEX:52014PC0213:EN type: Legislative proposal published title: COM(2014)0213 type: Legislative proposal published body: EC commission:
  • date: 2014-04-16T00:00:00 body: EP type: Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading committees: body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Economic and Monetary Affairs committee: ECON body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee: IMCO body: EP responsible: True committee_full: Legal Affairs committee: JURI body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee: LIBE
committees
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Economic and Monetary Affairs committee: ECON
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee: IMCO
  • body: EP responsible: True committee_full: Legal Affairs committee: JURI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee: LIBE
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