| 4 february 2002 |
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| Main themes; Participants; Sessions; First session; Second session; Third session; General conclusion; Main decisions; New ECRF Steering Committee |
To improve the efficiency of Commerce Registers in Europe, to create a favourable environment for the enterprises by reducing administrative burdens, to conceive new services in order to answer the market needs, both private and public. These are the main themes that have been addressed and discussed at the 4th Annual Conference of the Commerce Registers of Europe, held in Rome on 22 - 23 November 2001.
Important common goals for all Businesses Registers, both from EU Members and candidate countries, which are promoted by the European Commerce Registersí Forum (ECRF) in order to finalise common viewpoints, exchange good practices and agree on a common position towards the EU institutions involved in the company law regulation.The Conference topics reflect the experiences of the ECRF since its establishment in Cardiff (5th October 2000) and will represent the starting point for the future activities planned to take place from now till the 5th Annual Conference, scheduled on 10-12 June 2002 in Troms¯, Norway.
Representatives from about 33 European countries (more than 120 participants) have attended the Rome Conference. We expected participants from USA but the September 11 events have changed their plans. Some other countries, as the Slovak Republic, Moldova, Ukraine and Lithuania, have shown great interest about the initiative, but unfortunately for budget reasons they have not been able to take part to the Conference. In fact, last year in Cardiff these countries took benefit from the TAIEX grants, that in 2001 were no more available because of more strict criteria for this kind of European Union contribution.
The Conference has been organised around three working sessions each one focusing on a specific topic: simplification of the regulatory environment and new technologies; what is new in the non-EU countries in term of administration for the enterprises; new services for the European Commerce Registers.
The first session ìAdministrative simplification and the new technologiesî, has been perhaps the most interesting for the attendants. The main issue was the approval of the EC directive on European Company statute (Societas Europaea, SE), perfectly presented by an officer from the European Commission, DG Internal Market. The SE statute will greatly involve the Commerce Registers of the EU Member States, which are called for a great challenge that is more cooperation and more co-ordination for common actions at European level. This, having in mind the planned changes on the legal publicity of enterprises data, the simplification of the regulatory environment with the new coming EC proposal on the 1st Directive on Company law, the adoption of electronic filing and electronic signature in the communication between enterprises and Registers. At this regard, some national experiences have been shown during the Conference(see Annexes).
The second session, ìBusiness Register, an administration for enterprises:
what is going on outside the EU?î, has featured the experiences of Central and
Eastern European Countries, as Estonia, Russian Federation, Romania, Poland
and Hungary, in their road towards the market economy and implementation of
EU directives. It has offered an interesting overview as the ECRF could determine
some common activities
for both a better integration of the candidate countries and more transparency
in the European markets.
Finally, the third working session, ìFrom the Business Register to new servicesî, has seen a wide exhibition of new services that some Business Registers have launched recently or are planning to develop in the close future, with the purpose of being more sensitive as regard to new market needs, economy changes, development of internet and e-commerce. Several project, as Infoimprese, Kontakt N, Infomerciales, EBRTrust and Internet Confidence Service and many others, have been presented to the audience thus providing another chance for exchange of experiences and possible new partnerships.
As general conclusion of the Conference, we can say that what emerged is a strong confirmation to continue the activities of the ECRF, to reinforce the cooperation among the Registers all over Europe and with the European Commission, in order to better improve the regulatory and administrative environment for the European businesses. After the end of the Conference, the General Assembly of ECRF and an ad-hoc technical meeting on Electronic Filing took place.
Main decisions of the ECRF General Assembly have been to: continue the on-going activities on benchmarking and crXML (common standards for electronic filing); set-up of a new working group for the legal issues focusing on the SE; publish an ECRF newsletter. Netherlands (Association of Dutch Chambers of Commerce), Austria (Austrian Ministry of Justice) and Russian Federation (Moscow Registration Chamber), which have formerly applied for membership, have been admitted as new members.
Finally, the new ECRF President has been appointed (Mr. Erik Fossum, General Director of the Br¯nn¯ysund Register Centre.) together with the new ECRF Steering Committee.The Ad-hoc technical workshop on electronic filing has discussed in more details the outcomes from the activity carried out within ECRF concerning the standardisation of messages for the electronic filing between enterprises and Commerce Registers (crXML) and identified the next steps for the common developments (see Annexes).