Does the Application by Member States of the Commission Recommendations on Corporate Governance Issues Depend on the Diversity of Ownership Structures and Corporate Governance Systems?

Abstract:     
In December 2004 and February 2005, the EC Commission adopted two Recommendations in order to foster an appropriate regime for the remuneration of directors of listed companies and to strengthen the role of non-executive or supervisory directors and of the committees of the (supervisory) board, respectively. In July 2007 the Commission published two Reports on the application by the Member States of both Recommendations. The objective of these Reports - which covered 21 Member States - was to evaluate whether the Member States had put in place the necessary framework in order to give effect to the main principles of the Recommendations and to analyse, in detail, the principles actually implemented by each country. The findings of the Commission's evaluation reveal significant differences in the approach to these issues, in the level of application of the single provisions and, to some extent, in the means used to comply with the Recommendations. In this paper, I first analyse whether the level and the modalities of the implementation by the Member States actually depend on the diversity of share ownership structures, corporate governance systems and legal environment in European Union and, where relevant, to what extent. Second, I examine the need and appropriateness of using Recommendations ('soft law') instead of Directives ('hard law') to promote the process of convergence of corporate governance rules and practices across the EU.

Keywords: Recommendation, corporate governance, ownership structure, remuneration, non-executive directors, independence, EC Commission, European Union

JEL Classifications: K22, G30

Working Paper Series