Cross border sharing of Business Registers: a sensible way to enhance stakeholder confidence in European Companies
Date
27 January 2010
Making the company information which is currently held on national business registers available all over the EU is a practical way of making the single market more connected, says the global accountancy body ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) in its official response to a European Commission stakeholders’ consultation called the Interconnection of Business Registers.
ACCA welcomes wholeheartedly the European Commission's initiative to integrate all nationally-held information about private companies. The Association strongly encourages the EU executive to proceed, while recognising that there are considerable legal and technical hurdles to be overcome before a truly integrated system for sharing business information is available across the whole EU. John Davies, ACCA’s head of Business Law, says: ""There is currently no mechanism to make this information systematically available on a cross-border basis.
"There are two fundamental requirements for any EU-wide network of business registers. Firstly, the information contained within the registers must be kept up to date across territorial boundaries, and this will need to be done automatically. Secondly, the portal for user access to the information must be effective for them and designed in such a way as to encourage the widest possible use of the information."
Enabling individuals and businesses to routinely access reliable and transparent data on companies based in other countries will serve the purpose of encouraging cross-border trade and cross-border investment. "Making company data easily available is also essential to establish stakeholder confidence in the planned European Private Company and its application to SMEs, John Davies concludes.
- ends -
For further information, please contact:
Cecile Bonino
tel:+32 (0) 2 286 11 37
mob: +44 (0) 7809595008