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ARTICLE · 29 JANUARY 2009

Shareholders Rights Directive

Dillon Eustace
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Directive (2007/36/EC) (the “Directive”) known as the Shareholders Rights Directive was introduced in order to improve corporate governance in listed companies in Europe by enabling shareholders to exercise their voting rights and rights to information across borders.

IrelandCorporate/Commercial Law
Dillon Eustace
Dillon Eustace
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Background

Directive (2007/36/EC) (the "Directive") known as the Shareholders Rights Directive was introduced in order to improve corporate governance in listed companies in Europe by enabling shareholders to exercise their voting rights and rights to information across borders. While the Prospectus Directive1 focuses on the information which issuers have to disclose on admission to the market and the Transparency Directive2 deals with, amongst other matters, information which companies are required to make available in relation to company meetings, neither deal with the shareholder voting process.

The Commission's proposal for a directive on the exercise of certain rights of shareholders in listed companies was adopted on 11 July 2007 and published on 14 July 20073.

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