12. Urges the Commission to present an action plan indicating the way forward after the consultation, which should outline short-, medium- and long-term initiatives to improve the regulatory framework for EU company law; believes that short-term initiatives should include the14th Company Law Directive and measures improving the EU framework for corporate governance, while mid-term initiatives should address, for instance, the Ninth Company Law Directive, and long-term initiatives the codification of EU company law;

[16] The Impact Assessment describes several policy options which the Commission Services reflected upon: Option 0 consists in making no changes to the 4th Company Law Directive, Option 1 in encouraging Member States to a full use of the currently in the 4th Company Law Directive existing options, Option 2 foresees an obligatory exemption of micro-entities from the scope of the 4th Company Law Directive, Option 3 establishes a Member State option to exempt micro entities from the scope of the 4th Company Law Directive, Option 4 would constitute a simplified mandatory accounting regime for micro-entities and Option 5 provides for amendmen ...[+++]ts to the 4th Company Law Directive without introducing the new category of micro-entities.

[11] The 7th Company Law Directive does not need to be amended, as already the present text of this Directive gives the Member States an option to exclude from the obligation to draw up consolidated financial statements companies to be consolidated which together do not exceed the limits of medium-sized company as defined in the 4th Company Law Directive (Art. 6(1) of the 7th Company Law Directive).

The objective of this proposal of an amendment to the Directive 78/660/EEC on the annual accounts of certain types of companies (4th Company Law Directive) [1] is to simplify the business environment and particularly the financial reporting requirements for micro-entities in order to enhance their competitiveness and release their growth potential.

Every new European company law directive should help achieve the aim of harmonising employees’ rights and the idea of the European standard of participation, based on the new EU Reform Treaty, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Employees’ rights are core rights for a social Europe.

5. Points out that the rules governing corporate governance are generally designed to maintain a duality of power within the collegiate decision-making body by distinguishing between management and supervisory functions so as to limit conflicts of interest but stresses that non-executive structures may, besides their monitoring task, also have vital advisory, mediating and networking functions, and a particular role in linking up with societal demands and general interest. These rules are also designed to strengthen the role and rights of shareholders, in particular through better information and financial transparency. However, the recent financial scandals and the way they have affected the system as a whole offer grounds for a broader ap ...[+++]proach to matters of corporate governance; requests therefore that, in addition to the interests of institutional or individual shareholders, which are dealt with in depth in the communication, the Commission should take explicit account of the interests of all other stakeholders (employees, creditors, clients, suppliers, etc.) in the various proposals it will be submitting as part of its action plan, giving particular weight to the principle of corporate social and environmental responsibility; emphasises that decent structures and practices of information and consultation of workers form an indispensable part of European corporate governance and is of the opinion that all European company law directives should contain obligations for information and consultation of employee representatives where major decisions are at stake for the continuity of firms and jobs.