Diana Nutting Interconnection of European Business Registers
Jinfo Blog

23rd November 2009

By Diana Nutting

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The European Union has published a green paper called “The Interconnection of Business Registers which considers how to improve access to information on businesses (http://digbig.com/5barbt). In Europe, business registers operate on a national or regional basis: they only store information on companies registered in the territory (country or region) where they are competent. Businesses increasingly expand beyond national borders using the opportunities offered by the Single Market. Cross-border groups as well as a high number of restructuring operations, such as mergers and divisions involve companies from different Member States of the EU, leading to an increasing demand for access to information on companies in a crossborder context. The Green Paper describes the existing framework and considers possible ways forward to improve access to information on businesses across the EU and more effective application of the company law directives. Currently users have to search in at least 27 registers in order to gather the relevant business information on companies. Even if the registers are available online, stakeholders have to deal with different languages, search conditions, and structures. The EU is therefore looking to provide a single access point to business information on all European companies. The need for cross-border cooperation of business registries was identified nearly two decades ago, which led to the launching of the so-called European Business Register (EBR) initiative. This was voluntary project undertaken by the business registries with the support of the European Commission. The EBR was launched as an initiative between business registries and today a majority of EU registers participate in it. Currently, it combines registers from 18 Member States and six other European jurisdictions. The EBR cooperation has, however, some limitations. Firstly, whilst the informal nature of the EBR cooperation has contributed to its flexibility, it has posed significant challenges to the expansion of the network. Neither EBR nor the relevant business registries, in particular those that are financed from public finances, have access to sufficient funds to accelerate the construction of a network covering all Member States. Member States, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and interested parties are invited to submit their views on the suggestions set out in this Green Paper with a view of establishing a broad consensus on any measures that could be envisaged. Contributions are invited until 31 January 2010.

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