whereas business registers examine, register and store company information about such matters as a
               company's legal form, seat and capital, the appointment, termination of office, powers and particulars of
               its legal representatives, the accounting documents for each financial year, and, where appropriate, the
               company's winding-up, and make that information available to the public,


whereas business registers in the EU operate on a national or regional basis and store only information
               about companies which are registered in the area for which they are responsible,


whereas there is an increasing demand for access to information about companies in a cross-border
               context, either for commercial purposes or to facilitate access to justice; whereas it is essential for
               creditors and enforcement authorities to have reliable and up-to-date information about debtors and
               their assets; whereas there is a necessity to disclose particular details in order to ensure that employees'
               rights laid down in European company law are respected,


whereas the fact that business registers are not yet interconnected causes economic losses and problems
               for all stakeholders ≠ not only companies but also their employees, consumers and the public 
               especially in terms of transparency, efficiency and legal certainty; whereas facilitated access to reliable
               and updated information on companies from all the Member States across borders increases transparency and legal certainty in the internal market and can restore trust in the markets following the
               financial and economic crisis,

whereas since 1 January 2007 the information contained in business registries has been stored electronically and is accessible on-line in all Member States; whereas, although the relevant business
               information is available on-line, register standards differ and stakeholders have to deal with different
               languages, search conditions and structures,

whereas the content, meaningfulness and legal significance of individual registers tends to differ, and
               whereas this could have legal consequences that could vary from Member State to Member State,

whereas a single access point to business information relating to all European companies would save
               time and cost; whereas in order to achieve this aim the mandatory participation of all Member States in
               this access point should be considered,

whereas this single access point should provide high-quality information from all Member States;
               whereas this information should be reliable, kept up to date and provided in a standard format and
               in all EU languages; whereas this single access point should be actively followed up by the Commission,

whereas in its flagship initiative `An industrial policy for the globalization era' contained in its communication entitled `Europe 2020: a European strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth', the
                Commission undertakes to `improve the business environment, especially for SMEs, including through
                reducing the transaction costs of doing business in Europe',

whereas on 25 and 26 May 2010 the Council adopted conclusions that rightly underline the importance
                of data quality and the need for access to information to be simplified in order to enhance stakeholders'
                trust and the success of activities within the internal market, as well as the need for all the Member
                States to be involved in ensuring centralized access to information,

whereas cooperation between business registers is essential in the case of cross-border mergers, seat
                transfers or cross-border insolvency proceedings; whereas cooperation is explicitly required by several
                company-law instruments, such as Directive 2005/56/EC, Regulation (EC) No 2157/2001 and
                Regulation (EC) No 1435/2003,

whereas the disclosure requirements for foreign branches laid down by Eleventh Company Law Directive
                89/666/EEC mean that in practice cooperation between business registries is essential; whereas that
                cooperation should not be confined to the time when a branch is opened, but should also extend to
                ensuring that the relevant information is correct and updated in order to avoid discrepancies between
                the contents of the register containing the branch's details and those of that containing the parent
                company's details,

whereas once the Statute for a European Private Company (COM(2008)0396) is adopted the number of
                cases that require cross-border cooperation may increase significantly,

whereas several mechanisms for cooperation between business registers are already in place, such as the
                European Business Register (EBR), the Business Register Interoperability Throughout Europe (BRITE)
                project and the Internal Market Information System (IMI); whereas the EBR and BRITE are voluntary,
                and therefore not all Member States participate in them; whereas, furthermore, BRITE is only a research
                project,

whereas in its resolution of 18 December 2008 Parliament welcomed the idea of creating an e-Justice
                portal; whereas the European e-Justice action plan for 2009-2013 provides for the integration of the
                EBR into the European e-Justice portal