By Anna McLauchlin - 26th April 2004
New laws requiring companies to give more information to investors have been shelved for six months because EU bureaucrats were slow off the mark, a source has told EUpolitix.com.
An EU official told this website that the new law, which was agreed at the end of March this year, should have had the green light from national governments by now.
But the European Commission's legal and linguistic team will not have a final draft ready until the end of May.
And with the EU enlarging on May 1 the legislation must be translated into all 20 languages of the new enlarged union before it can be officially passed.
"It's a sorry tale", the source said. "Basically we are losing six months."
The law can now only get the official thumbs up in the autumn.
And the official also said it was "theoretically possible" that new member states, whose voting power in the EU comes into play this weekend, could oppose the law, although he admitted it appeared unlikely.
The new rules in the so-called 'transparency directive' focus on the information to be published by companies listed on EU stock markets and bond issuers in order to increase investor protection.
Most importantly, firms will have to issue a three monthly update detailing any major movements such as changes in the executive board or shareholder structure.
EU laws usually have to be implemented by governments two years after they are formally adopted, meaning the transparency directive will be in force at the earliest in autumn 2006.
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