External Studies

Study on “comply-or-explain”

On 23 December 2008, DG Internal Market and Services commissioned a study on the monitoring and enforcement systems concerning Member States’ corporate governance codes. The objectives of the study are

• to describe the relationship, in the 27 Member States, between legislation and “soft” law (codes) in corporate governance;
• to examine the existing monitoring and enforcement mechanisms in the Member States as far as corporate governance codes are concerned and to evaluate their effectiveness;
• to obtain an impression of the companies’ perception of the codes; and
• to evaluate the perception of shareholders as to the quality of companies’ disclosure on the application of corporate governance principles and of explanations given where the company declares not to comply, and of their reactions to disclosure perceived as insufficient.

The final study was delivered at the end of September 2009.

Study on Monitoring and Enforcement practices in Corporate Governance in the Member States

• Main study:
• Appendix 1: Legal Analysis (by Member State)
• Appendix 2: Survey on company perception of CG codes
• Appendix 3: Detailed Methodology

Survey amongst institutional investors – 09.03.2009

The contractor has launched a survey amongst institutional investors concerning point 4 of the objectives described above.

The survey can be accessed at www.riskmetrics.com/ECInvestorSurvey .

Deadline for contributions: closed

Call for Tender – MARKT/2008/23/F – 02.08.2008

B-Brussels: study on monitoring and enforcement practices in corporate governance in the Member States 

Deadline for submission of tenders: closed