Akcininkų teisių apsauga Europos bendrijos teisėje

As countries caught on to the benefits of limited liability corporate structures, it became necessary to protect pecuniary and non- pecuniary rights of shareholders from the unlawful and harmful actions of the company‘s management and supervisory organs. Differences in national legislations regulating work of companies undoubtedly restrict both the natural tendencies balancing the internal market as well as the protection of the shareholders rights. To avoid this dischord it is necessary to pay close attention to the company law harmonisation at the EC level. The purpose of law harmonisation is not only to make it easier to exercise the right of establishment found in the EC Treaty, but also to diminish the risk for violation of shareholders, creditors and third parties rights caused by different company law regimes in each of the member states. The company law harmonisation programme in the EC was mostly carried out by passing secondary legislation- the directives. Regulations were passed when there was a need not only to harmonise national legislation, but also to establish transnational business entities. This paper analyses the provisions of company law directives and Societas Europaea regulation related to the protection of shareholders rights. This paper also highlights the fact that during recent years, the reform of EC company law preceded non-binding legislation passed by the European Commission. The European Commission supports simplification and modernisation of provisions in directives, striving towards increased business efficiency and competitiveness without simultaneously jeapordizing the protection of shareholders‘ and creditors` rights. The European Commission also decided that in addition to streamlined harmonizing directives, member states should also pass soft-law (non-binding) corporate governance codices. The Internal Market should not view this merely as a mimicing of the developments US company law, but rather as a paradigm shift that will undoubtedly increase business development in the EC and provide better treatment of shareholders rights and to encourage positive changes in corporate governance systems.