The Proposal for a Directive on single-member private limited liability company (SUP) from the Lithuanian perspective
ENIn recent years, the European Commission (hereinafter the Commission) has shown initiatives in the field of regulation of private companies in the European Union (hereinafter the EU), in particular, focusing on the small and medium-sized enterprises (hereinafter SMEs). As no agreement on the Statute for European Private Company (Societas Privata Europaea, SPE) had been reached, the Commission was looking for different other ways to simplify the conditions for SMEs to conduct cross-border business. Its focus shifted to the regulation of single-member limited liability companies, i.e. whose shares are held by a single person. In April 2014, the Commission published its Proposal for a Directive on Single-Member Private Limited Liability Companies (hereinafter the Initial SUP Proposal). But after examination by the Working Party on Company Law at fourteen occasions during the Hellenic, Italian and Latvian Presidencies, on 28 May 2015, the Council agreed on a compromise text of the SUP Proposal4 (hereinafter the SUP Proposal or draft Directive) and submitted for negotiations with the European Parliament. The proposed Directive had not to establish a new supranational legal form for the single member company, but it had to provide an EU-wide set of harmonised rules for single-member private limited liability companie and had to result in appearance of national legal form of company called Societas Unius Personae (SUP) with the same requirements across the EU as regards: electronic registration process, uniform template of articles of association, minimum capital requirement of €1 and adequate protection of creditors. However, during the negotiations some provisions of the Initial SUP Proposal have changed significantly. [Extract, p. 121-122]
