ICI Comments on EU Proposal to Improve Shareholder Rights, Voting Procedures, July 2005

Washington, DC, July 19, 2005 - The Investment Company Institute recently filed a comment letter with the European Commission supporting efforts in the European Union to improve shareholder rights and the ability of shareholders to vote cross border.

The paper addressed a number of obstacles to cross-border voting identified as priorities by the Institute and its members. Among other things, the EU Commission intended to: introduce minimum notice periods for shareholder meetings; eliminate shareblocking; allow proxy voting and voting by correspondence (particularly by electronic means); and permit intermediaries to cast split votes.

U.S. mutual fund companies manage $768 billion in funds that have a global or international focus.

ICI supports the Commission's proposals on communicating information regarding General Meetings that seek to ensure that shareholders, no matter where they are based, are in a position to make informed decisions. Most significantly, the letter supports the establishment of notice periods for convening a General Meeting; proposed minimum standards relating to the contents of the notice of the General Meeting; and the establishment of minimum standards that would require Member States to ensure that issuers post on their websites information regarding shareholders' rights in relation to the General Meeting.
As regards shareblocking, ICI supports the Commission's proposals to: abolish provisions making the right to vote in a General Meeting conditional and require a record date system where the right to vote at a General Meeting will be made conditional upon qualifying as a shareholder on a given date prior to the relevant meeting.
The Institute also supports the proposed minimum standards that would ensure that shareholders of listed companies have the possibility to vote by correspondence and that Member States remove existing requirements, and not impose new requirements, on companies that would hinder or prohibit voting by electronic means at General Meetings. Similarly, ICI supports the proposed minimum standards to further facilitate the use of proxy voting across Member States.