On Disclosure Requirements

Speech by Sharon Bowles MEP delivered to European Parliament on Thu 18th Dec 2008

I am very pleased to reduce the financial reporting burden on SMEs. Smaller companies are not simply downsized versions of large corporations. So some reporting required of large companies is not relevant at all. Other parts create an excessive drain on resources, do not fit the realities of running the huge variety of different smaller companies that we have in Europe and so do not serve the public interest. Unnecessary reporting does more harm than good. Glad to be rid of some, let's keep up the good work

The part of the final text that my Group, and others, disagree with most is that on correlation tables. The Commission wanted correlation tables on transposition to be mandatory. That is our position. The Council will not agree that because they say it is an unnecessary burden. Well, it should not be. That is my answer. We must find a way to make transposition of EU legislation accessible. This is an enormous democratic deficit. Member States are responsible, but Europe gets blamed.

There is a similarity here with the criticism that has been made against the Lisbon Treaty because it is unreadable as a stand alone document.

But there should be even more of an outcry from the public because day after day this is just what many Member State Governments are doing to their citizens and businesses in transposition.

Let us be clear - this is not something that is an EU malaise, it is a Member State Government malaise and it must end.