Adjusting national legislation to European one will increase investors’ interest – European experts

There is a need for aligning the national legislation on commercial entities with EU standards in order that Moldova promotes a more competitive environment for companies, a fact which will result in increasing indirect foreign investments, the manager of the “Support to PCA and WTO Implementation and to EU/Moldova European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan (ENPAP)” project Nikos Economou, stated within the frameworks of the roundtable “Harmonizing Moldovan legal frame in entities’ law” on Monday, December 18. According to the European expert, the fact of attracting direct foreign investments could create great advantages for commercial societies: they will improve methods of administration and management, thus facilitating access to new technologies, new markets. This will also create direct benefits for Moldova’s economy in general. The project’s legal expert, Paolo Clarotti informed the audience about the EU legislation directives regulating joint stock companies. He especially mentioned the first EU directive in the field, regulating the process of informing share-holders and the public about the commercial society. According to the cited source, the main information which is to be disclosed is that on the company’s statute and its later amendments; the names and the offices of persons holding the leadership; amount of the capital subscribed and its amendments; the balance sheet and the profit and loss account for each financial year, the central office and any transfer of the seat of the company, an eventual process of liquidation or reorganization. All this information must be published in the “Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova” (MO) or in its annexes. The MO can contain a summary of the full information, and the entire information to be displayed in an electronic form of the publication. The most important thing, Clarotti says, is that the presented information must be truthful and that the legislation in force provides for who should be hold responsible for its fabrication. Besides that, the entire information on companies should be contained in a single register of companies. The member of the Securities National Commission, Nadejda Stanciu stated, during the roundtable, that the legislation in force or the amendments brought, in conformity with European experts recommendations already include the mandatory character of publishing the data on companies. On the other hand, in order to implement these provisions there is need for a period of transition , because, at the moment, publishing of the information implies considerable financial costs, unaffordable for some small-sized JSCs, especially from the regions, which do not even have typewriters. The representative of the Chamber of State Registration, Mihai Dragan mentioned that, at the moment the Register of enterprises and organizations partially includes the requirements of the European legislation. According to him, the draft on amending the legislation on the registration of legal entities and enterprises was completed with the recommendations of European experts concerning including in the register the data about company’s balance, profits and losses. He also mentioned that the Law on enterprises and organizations stipulates that persons who admit inaccuracies in the publicized information are to be held responsible. The expert of the project, Bogdan Ciubotaru told Info-Prim Neo that the legislation in the domain, including the laws regulating JSC activity as well as the new bill on limited companies mostly fits the European legal frames. The obligation that those 2 types of societies disclose certain types of data is important because the transparency in the financial field offer better guarantees for creditors or potential creditors, but also for the members of the enterprises, the cited source said. “We are sure that via taking into account the recommendations formulated by European experts, we could contribute to the improvement of the investment climate, and this will increase the interest of foreign investors for Moldova”, Ciubotaru concluded, cited by Info-Prim Neo. The round table has been organized within the frameworks of the project “Support to PCA and WTO Implementation and to EU/Moldova European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan”. The project is financed by the European Union and is implemented by European Profiles, British Council, Altair Asesores Consortium.