Text tabled : A7-0051/2012

  Ildikó Gáll-Pelcz (PPE), in writing. – As one of the shadow rapporteurs for this topic on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), I think that the Commission’s Green Paper recognised several difficulties that reduce the efficiency of the EU’s corporate governance framework and limit the system’s usefulness. To avoid these problems, we will, as a result of today’s vote, reinforce certain requirements at EU level by including soft regulation. In agreement with the ECON Committee, we thought that the financial crisis revealed a lack of effectiveness in existing corporate governance principles. In the end, we came to a common compromise, which was a great success. A really sensitive issue – and one included in opinions from several committees – is gender equality. Nonetheless, promoting women to boards has an indisputably positive effect; that is why I called also on the Commission to put in place definite initiatives to ensure women are better represented on boards of directors. To summarise, I can say that we reached these goals by stressing that a well-governed company should be accountable and transparent to its employees, its shareholders and other stakeholders. It reaffirms that directors of institutions have to take account of sustainability and long-term interests when taking decisions, in order to minimise risks.