During a debate on the European Commission’s proposal to amend the Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD) held on the 12th of May in Brussels, Guillaume Prache, Managing Director of BETTER FINANCE, denounced the fees that individual investors often have to pay in order to exercise their voting rights. These fees can be particularly high for cross-border voting within the EU despite clear-cut EU Treaty rules on the free flow of capital.
- EU citizens do not have to pay to exercise their political voting rights.
- EU citizens do not have to pay to exercise their voting rights as co-owners of real estate.
- EU citizens as individual investors should not have to pay to exercise their voting rights.
This request is about democracy and basic human rights and should be self-evident. Unfortunately, however, the recent proposal by the European Commission does not address this issue. BETTER FINANCE therefore asked the European Commission to include a provision in the SRD requiring that individual shareholders can exercise their voting rights free of charge within the EU.
Please read the BETTER FINANCE press release on the review of the Shareholder Rights Directive.