European Company Law Beyond the 2003 Action Plan

European Company Law has been experiencing rapid development in recent years. In 2003 the European Commission published a first action plan on the further integration of company law in Europe: Modernising Company Law and Enhancing Corporate Governance in the European Union - A Plan to Move Forward. The plan listed 24 measures and recommended that they be implemented in the course of the following years. The new Commission then revisited the 2003 Action Plan during 2005 and 2006. This paper describes the measures that have been implemented to date under the 2003 Plan. It also discusses how the changes in the Commission's agenda have affected the Plan's recommendations. The paper then moves on to sketch what might be expected in the near future on the basis of the Commission's re-evaluation of the Action Plan in 2005-2006. The new agenda focuses on simplifying existing laws, assessing the impact of existing and proposed legislation to determine the most appropriate regulatory instruments, and evaluating in many cases whether a uniform law or a menu of options would best serve the EU