THE EUROPEAN PRIVATE COMPANY – DREAM BIG BUT CAUTIOUSLY?

The recent financial crisis has revealed the importance for the companies to operate in a fl exible legal environment allowing for fast adaptation to changing market circumstances. Therefore, being aware of the problems resulting from diversity of company laws, it is pertinent to create a European company form designed specifi cally for SMEs. The EPC would offer the fl exibility expected from a genuine European form, by the possibility to be created in the State of their choice and to transfer the registered offi ce and real seat to another State without particular diffi culties. Why, then, there are still so many hesitations that effectively block the fi nal implementation? There is no time for ‘balanced’ approaches which only give the impression of a compromise but in fact result in the slowing down of necessary company law changes. Focusing too much on the national legal framework in which business is carried out in the EU, exposes companies to the application of the wide diversity of national laws and company regimes. Should we stay behind, making short-term decisions favoring mainly national companies and do not paying suffi cient attention to the idea of European integration, it will result in decrease of the entrepreneurship and international competitiveness of companies