Response to Commission hearing on revision of the

Transparency Directive

First, the Danish government would like to thank the Commission for the op-portunity to contribute to the important work on revising the TransparencyDirective through this public hearing.Below, you will find Danish positions on what we consider to be key pointsin relation to a revision of the Transparency Directive.Better regulation in the EU, including reducing administrative burdens forbusinesses, is a priority for the Danish Government. Good rules with littleadministrative burdens release time and resources in companies, improvecompetitiveness and create more growth and jobs in the society. However, atthe same time it is necessary to take into account the interests of the investors.The Danish Government supports the appropriateness of a study to assess theneed for and the possible impact of more simple or more flexible rules for alllisted companies as well as an impact study regarding different transparencyregimes for large and SME listed companies. When assessing such possiblemodifications for issuers due consideration should be taken to both investorprotection and investors interests.As regards major shareholding notification we recommend and support amaximum harmonization approach - possibly in the form of a regulation - toensure uniformity in all Member States. We see the need to harmonize therules of major shareholding notification across Member States to improvecross border investments within the EU.Regarding enforcement of the Transparency Directive regulation, we recom-mend that a revision of the directive ensures that the reporting of all listedcompanies are subject to enforcement in a Member State. It is important thatthe Transparency Directive in this matter in the future does not provide forany possibility to implement the rules in such a way, that a listed company canoperate without being under supervision of any Member State.

As for the thoughts about introducing requirements regarding disclosure ofEnvironmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data, Denmark is a strong ad-vocate for ensuring such matters, but it is at the same time important to stress,that new administrative burdens put upon the listed companies must be bal-anced. We would prefer a flexible regulation that would provide for the com-panies to tailor the required reporting taking into account the specific nature ofthe company. We find it important to sustain the high level of transparencywith regard to CSR matters, which is a consequence of the existing Danishregulation on financial reports. The Danish Government has at the moment nofinal position as to where such ESG rules would most naturally be imple-mented in EU regulation.The Danish Government in general supports a higher level of transparencywith regard to the disclosure of the identity of shareholders. A higher level oftransparency regarding this matter would reduce the possibilities for hiddenownership. We also support increased transparency regarding stock lendingpractices to reduce “empty voting”. The Danish Government supports initia-tives to increase the dialogue between the shareholders - including institu-tional investors - and the issuer. In recent years, there has been increased fo-cus on shareholders' role in listed companies. In the future, shareholders aregenerally expected to act as owners to a greater extent than earlier, and theDanish Government fundamentally supports initiatives that promote activeownership.Regarding the proposal to harmonise the maximum content of financial re-ports, the Danish Government believes, that rules regarding the actual contentof financial reports should be included in the Fourth and Seventh CompanyLaw Directives. These directives apply to listed and non-listed companies aswell, and the Danish position is, that specific accounting matters should beregulated in the Fourth and Seventh Company Law Directives instead of in theTransparency Directive. Additionally, we would like to stress, that a revisionof the Transparency Directive must be coordinated with the possible revisionsof the Fourth and Seventh Company Law Directives.The Danish Government supports the establishment of a pan-European systemof storage of regulated information.