EU deal on digital company law: an EU Company Certificate and a digital power of attorney
On 13 March 2024 the Council and Parliament agreed to extend digital tools in EU company law. The deal creates a free EU Company Certificate and a multilingual digital EU power of attorney, makes more company data available through the business registers interconnection system, and means companies do not have to resubmit information already held by another EU register.
Negotiators for the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached a provisional deal on 13 March 2024 on a directive to further expand and upgrade digital tools and processes in company law. The Commission proposed it in March 2023.
What changed
- EU Company Certificate: a standard certificate of a company's key details, available electronically and free of charge for certain company types. Fees, where allowed, may not exceed administrative cost. It includes the company's objects where national registers record them.
- Digital EU power of attorney: a multilingual model based on a common template, to cut formalities such as apostilles and translations in cross-border dealings.
- Once only: companies setting up subsidiaries or branches in another member state should not have to resubmit information already held by a register.
- More information, including the particulars of limited partners where national registers already publish them, flows through the business registers interconnection system (BRIS).
Who is affected
Groups operating in more than one EU member state, and the company secretaries who prove company details to banks, counterparties and registries abroad.
What to do
Nothing applied on the day of the deal. Expect simpler cross-border evidence of company details once member states implement it.
Later developments
The text became Directive (EU) 2025/25 of 19 December 2024, in force from 30 January 2025. Member states must transpose it by 31 July 2027 and apply the measures from 31 July 2028, with some provisions from 1 August 2029.