Simplified business environment for companies in the areas of company law: accounting and auditing
Rapporteur: Klaus-Heiner Lehne (EPP-ED)
Exchange of views
Rapporteur Klaus Lehne introduced his report noting that the draft report is currently not available due to translation problems of the German draft text.
He intends not to follow the Commission proposal to delete certain legal acts as proposed as option 1 of the Commission Communication. He said that simplification does not necessarily mean deletion, and reminded that finding compromises on certain issues was often difficult.
However, Mr Lehne noted that there are a number of directives that can be amended, particularly those resulting from the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation in the US.
The Commission agreed to the report noting that the decision for option 1 goes in line with the forthcoming Council decision on this issue.
The Competitiveness Council will vote on the issue on 22 November.
The Commission is expected to present its proposals in early 2008.
Background:
The Commission Communication was presented on 10 July 2007 and included two options for on how to proceed for certain company law directives:
– The first option is to address the question whether today all existing directives are still needed or whether the EU acquis in the area of company law should be reduced to those legal acts specifically dealing with cross-border problems.
– The second, less far-reaching option consists in focusing only on concrete, individual simplification measures in order to help EU companies.
Commission Communication on a simplified business environment for companies in the areas of company law, accounting and auditing (10 July 2007)
Commission Press release
Law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I)
Rapporteur: Cristian Dumitrescu (PSE)
Adoption of draft report
The Committee approved the Rome I regulation, which is designed to improve the recognition and enforcement in all EU Member States of court judgments on civil and commercial disputes.
Members voted unanimously to adopt a report by Cristian Dumitrescu (PES, RO). If adopted, this legislation will provide common EU rules on the choice of the law to apply in case of cross-border disputes.
In order to improve the mutual enforcement of court judgments among Member States, EU-wide rules are needed governing the choice of the applicable law. It is important that, if citizens are free to choose the court where they can make their claim, they cannot simply choose the courts of one Member State rather than another just because the law is more favourable to their cause there (a practice known as "forum-shopping").
As a basic rule, two persons who stipulate a contract are free to choose the law applicable in the event of a dispute. If no choice is made, to avoid forum-shopping, the regulation would introduce common EU rules on the choice of the applicable law.
MEPs argued that, in the case of a contract between a professional and a consumer, the latter should be advantaged by the choice of the court. One amendment adopted by the committee states that, in the event of a dispute, the applicable law should in general be the most familiar one, i.e. the law of the country where the consumer has his habitual residence.
However, in the case of a contract for the sale of goods, the committee decided that the applicable law should be that of the seller's habitual residence.
As far as individual contracts of employment are concerned, where the law applicable has not been chosen by the parties, the contract would be governed by the law of the country in which the employee habitually carries out his work.
Draft agenda
© Graham Bishop
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