Negozjati dwar il-Listing Act

Wara l-laqgħa ta’ trialogu dwar il-Listing Act (l-Att dwar il-Listing) bejn id-delegazzjonijiet tal-Parlament Ewropew u tal-Kunsill tal-Ministri Ewropej fil-preżenza tal-Kummissjoni Ewropea li seħħet fit-23 ta’ Novembru fi Strasburgu komplew fil-ġimagħtejn ta’ wara laqgħat tekniċi intensivi bejn l-uffiċċju tad-deputat Ewropew Laburista Alfred Sant u ż-żewġ delegazzjonijiet l-oħra. 

Sant hu r-rapporteur għall-Parlament dwar il-Listing Act. Għalhekk hu jmexxi f’isem il-Parlament in-negozjati mal-Kunsill biex jinstab abbozz wieħed maqbul għal dan l-Att. Effettivament l-Att jinqasam f’żewġ partijiet. Min-naħa, idaħħal direttiva Ewropea ġdida li biha kumpaniji jkunu jistgħu joħorġu offerti ta’ ishma fl-impriża tagħhom bi drittijiet differenti ta’ vot għal min jixtrihom (imsejħa ishma b’valur multepliċi ta’ vot). Min-naħa l-oħra, il-Listing Act jipproponi modi biex jitħaffu l-proċeduri li bihom kumpaniji jippublikaw is-sejħa għall-bejgħ ta’ ishma tagħhom fi prospectus li jagħti tagħrif sħiħ dwar l-offerta, u l-proċeduri li bihom jiġu regolati l-bejgħ u x-xiri ta’ ishma fis-swieq kapitali ħalli jiġu evitati l-abbużi.

Matul il-laqgħat tekniċi, twettaq progress kbir dwar dan l-aħħar aspett tant li fit-tieni laqgħa tat-trialogu li seħħet fl-14 ta’ Diċembru, prattikament seta’ jintqal li ntlaħaq ftehim politiku dwar il-materji kollha f’dal-qasam. Bil-maqlub, it-trattattivi tekniċi dwar l-ishma b’vot multepliċi ftit li xejn għamlu progress. Fit-trialogu, in-naħa tal-Kunsill għamlitha ċara li ma kinitx se tiċċaqlaq mill-pożizzjoni tal-bidu tagħha, imbiegħda sew minn dik tal-Parlament. Waqt li dan ried li l-bejgħ ta’ ishma b’vot multepliċi seta’ jsir possibbli għad-ditti Ewropej kollha permezz tad-direttiva l-ġdida, il-Kunsill ried li jillimita dan għad-ditti ta’ daqs żgħir u nofshani (smes) fi swieq kapitali li jkunu miftuħa għalihom biss. Fuq dal-punt baqa’ ma nstabx qbil. 

Fit-trialogu, Sant offra bidla fil-proposta tal-Parlament biex is-swieq kollha kapitali jkunu jistgħu jaċċettaw offerti ta’ ishma b’vot multepliċi mill-kumpanji kollha, mhux biss smes. Hu ppropona li din il-miżura tiġi tapplika b’mod li tħalli lill-Istati Membri jiddeċiedu huma liema kondizzjonijiet iridu li jintrabtu mal-ħruġ ta’ dawn l-offerti u mhux ikollhom isegwu f’hekk x’tgħid id-direttiva. Uħud mill-pajjiżi membri li diġà jippermettu l-ħruġ ta’ offerti għal ishma b’vot multepliċi ma jridux li dil-ħaġa titpoġġa taħt direttiva Ewropea għax jibżgħu li b’hekk se jiddaħħlu kondizzjonijiet ġodda li huma ma jesiġux.

Matul Jannar 2024 se jinżammu aktar laqgħat tekniċi biex jaraw jistax jinstab kompromess qabel il-laqgħa tat-trialogu li jmiss. Il-prospetti ta’ kompromess faċli fil-kwistjoni tal-vot multepliċi mhumiex tajba.

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Negotiations on the Listing Act

In the two weeks following the meeting on the 23 November in Strasbourg of the trialogue on the Listing Act between delegations of the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers in the presence of the European Commission, intensive technical meetings between the office of MEP Alfred Sant and the two other delegations continued.

Sant is the EP rapporteur on the Listing Act and on the Parliament’s behalf, leads the negotiations with the Council to establish an agreed text for this Act. Effectively, the Listing Act consists of two parts. It introduces a new European directive enabling  companies to issue offers for the sale of shares in their firms which give buyers different voting rights at shareholders’ meetings (called shares with multiple votes structures). The second part of the Listing Act proposes simplified procedures by which companies can publish their share issues in prospectuses that give full information about the share offer, plus further simplication of the procedures that regulate the sale and purchase of shares on capital markets in order to prevent abuses. 

During the technical meetings significant progress was achieved about this second aspect. Actually, the second trialogue meeting held on the 14 December could have concluded that a political agreement had been reached on all pending matters in this area. To the contrary however, technical meetings on the multiple voting share structures had registered little to no progress. During the December trialogue, the Council side made it clear that it would not budge from its initial position which was very distant from that of the Parliament. While the latter wanted to make mutliple voting share structures available to all European companies by means of the directive under discussion, the Council wanted to restrict it to small and medium sized enterprises (smes) on the capital markets where  they can trade. On this point, no agreement could be registered.

During the trialogue, Alfred Sant offered to amend the Parliament’s position that allows all capital markets to accept share issues with multiple voting share structures for all companies, not just smes. He proposed that this measure would apply in such a  way as to allow all Members States to decide on a national basis what conditions should be set for mutiple voting share issues and not have to follow parameters established by the directive. Some countries which already allow such issues do not want the system to be placed under a European directive as they fear that it would introduce new conditions that they do not require. 

During January 2024, more technical meetings are scheduled to be held before another trialogue takes place. The prospects of an easy compromise on the matter of multiple voting share structures are not good.