Non-property Rights of Shareholders and Implementation

Shareholders, being the owners of the company’s shares, are interested in a profitable and effective performance of the company, because by acquiring shares of the company they seek satisfaction of their own interests, i.e. material gain. Therefore, the shareholders should have an opportunity to be actively involved in the management of the company, control actions of the management bodies of the company and, thus, pursue defined business objectives. Such opportunities to shareholders are provided by their non-property rights. This work analyses the main non-property rights of shareholders in Lithuania, emphasizes the importance of proper implementation of these rights. It also deals with infringement instances of these non-property rights and their consequences to the rights enjoyed by other shareholders, remedies for such infringed rights and discusses major problems that shareholders, both residents and non-residents, face in exercising them. The work also examines the initiatives proposed by the European Commission to improve corporate management in EU member states, in particular the Proposal by the European Commission for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 January 2006 on the exercise of voting rights by shareholders of companies having their registered office in a Member State and whose shares are admitted to trading on a regulated market and amending Directive 2004/109/EC