Digital Company Law directive: less “computer says no” for European businesses

Significant progress in reducing bureaucracy for businesses was made today following the interinstitutional agreement between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on a directive to increase the use of digital tools and processes in company law. The new simplified rules will apply to around 16 million limited liability companies and 2 million partnerships in the Single Market.

This text provides for the delivery of an EU Company Certificate which will contain basic information on companies with a view to facilitating their cross-border procedures during tax procedures, calls for public procurement and/or requests for funding. A single digital multilingual model will be created allowing the issuing of documents without the need for costly legal translation. They will abolish the apostille, a formality allowing certain paper documents to be certified by means of a fiscal stamp.

Jana TOOM (Eesti Keskerakond, Estonia), shadow rapporteur for the Digital Company Law Directive in the parliamentary committee on Legal Affairs (JURI), insisted the proposal enshrines the “once-only principle” into law : “If you’re a business and you went through the hassle of getting things administratively right in your country of origin you don’t want to hear ‘sorry, document missing’ when trying to make business in another EU country.”

Next steps: the agreement will now need to be endorsed by the Council and the JURI committee with a view to adopt the directive before the end of the mandate.