                                                                              Paris,27thJanuary,2010      
         


    ResponsetotheEuropeanCommission'sconsultationregardingthe
   GreenPaperoninterconnectionofbusinessregisters(SEC(2009)1492)

                                           

   TheNationalCouncilofBusinessRegistrarsandCommercialCourts
      (ConseilNationaldesGreffiersdesTribunauxdeCommerce)

                                                         
             InterestRepresentativeRegisterIDnumber:4007692313565

                                                         

Registrars (greffiers des tribunaux de commerce) are public officers endowed with public authority (officiers
publicsetministeriels).RegistrarsareindependentprofessionalsappointedbytheMinistryofJusticetoactas
publicofficersonbehalfoftheState.

As of 2010, there are 135 commercial courts and 216 registrars employing nearly 2000 staff and handling more
than four million legal documents on behalf of companies. 

Registrars fulfil several roles:

    -    assisting the court, conserving minutes and archives, and authenticating and issuing copies,
    -    publishing legal notices and ensuring legal compliance by maintaining the business register and
         holding personal property securities,
     - distributing legal and financial information to companies.
Since 1992, the registrar profession has been represented in transactions with public authorities and government
by the National Council of Business Registrars and Commercial Courts, which has the legal status of a company
and is responsible for promoting its collective interests.

InFrance,registrarsaretheauthoritiesresponsibleformaintainingbusinessregisters.

         

                                                   

            29,RueDanielleCasanova75001PARISTel:01.42.97.47.00Fax:01.42.97.47.55
                                       contact@cngtc.fr


    I.   PRESENTATION



In 1986 the National Council of Business Registrars and Commercial Courts set up an economic
interest group, Infogreffe GIE, a branch of the registrars' activity responsible for electronic
publicationoftheFrenchbusinessregister.Thismeansthatlegalinformationheldbyallregistrarsis
centralizedandcanthereforerapidlyinterconnectwithothercountries.

Since 1st October, 2009, Infogreffe GIE has also been the technical contractor for the National
InstituteofIndustrialProperty(InstitutNationaldelaPropritIndustrielleINPI)forpublicationof
theFrenchbusinessandcompaniesregister(RegistreNationalduCommerceetdesSocits).

Infogreffe,onbehalfoftheNationalCouncil ofBusinessRegistrarsandCommercialCourts,hashad
numerousdocumentdigitizationproceduresinplaceforseveralyearsandhaspositionedregistrars
aspioneersintechnologiesforprocessingcompanydata.

The National Council of Business Registrars and Commercial Courts has also been an institutional
memberoftheXBRLFranceassociationsince2008,andhasconsequentlyrequestedInfogreffeGie
tousethisnewstandardinpreparationforexchangeswithotherEuropeanregisters.

The French business and companies register is therefore, for all the aforementioned reasons,
completelyinlinewiththeEuropeanCommission'sapproachinrelationtotheGreenPaper.





   II.   OURPROPOSALS



             1) CreationofanAtlasofEuropeanBusinessRegisters

         On the European Commission's website, in the (http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/imi
         net/about_fr.html) section of the dedicated internal market information system (IMI), an
         Atlas of each Member State's Business Register in all Union languages could present the
         legal foundation of the business register law in force in that State and list all official sites.
         ThisAtlascouldbebasedonthetemplateoftheJudicialAtlasinCivilMatters.




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      2) CreationofauniqueEuropeanidentificationnumber

          

   ThisnumberwouldidentifythesameentitywithapresenceinvariousEuropeanUnion
   countries.ThisnumbercouldbebasedontheprinciplesestablishedbyBRITE(REID).

   

      3) Informationtocentralize

   

   A subsection could be created in the Atlas of European Business Registers devoted
   exclusivelytocommercialcompanies which,foreachcompanylisted,woulddisplay 10key
   piecesofinformationuploadedbythevariousbusinessregistersineachMemberState,with
   alinktonationalsiteslistingthecompanysearchedfor.

   NewtechnologieswouldmakeiteasyforMemberStatestopublishtheirinformationtothe
   Atlas using web services requiring only modest investment and maintenance. This would
   guarantytheauthenticityoftheinformationpublished.

   The 10 key pieces of information about commercial companies registered on States'
   businessregisterscouldbe:

   Companyname

   Registrationnumber

   Businessregister,town/cityandcountry,contactdetails

   Legalstructure

   Activities(Europeannomenclature)

   Addressofthecompany'sheadofficeorregisteredpremises

   Registrationdate

   Mostrecentlyregisteredturnover

   Mostrecentlyregisteredprofits

   Deletiondateifapplicable

   

   

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      4) Accesstoinformationmustbebasedonofficialregisters

          

   AnimprovednetworkofMemberStates'businessregistersisnecessary,indeedcrucial.

   Itmustbedrawnexclusivelyfromeachcountry'sofficialbusinessregister,notfromprivate
   providers.Thiswouldguaranteethelegalandofficialnatureofthedataaswellasofferthe
   possibility of creating future links with the judicial system and with "officially appointed
   mechanisms for the central storage of regulated information" in each country (the AMF 
   Autorit des Marchs Financiers  in France) as well as with all fiscal bodies and
   administrationsorregulatorybodies,includingthoseataEuropeanlevel.

   

   

      5) Communicationbetweenregistersmustbestrengthened

          

   The network must strengthen communication between business registers in the context of
   crossborder transactions, mergers and transfers of head offices, as well as the proper
   understanding of legal and financial data of European groups (those with subsidiaries in
   variousMemberStates).

   For this it will be necessary to eventually standardize the data contained in the European
   businessandcompaniesregisters.

   Iftheseactionsarenotundertakeninthenearfuture,theywillbecomeevenmorenecessary
   as a result of simplification and digitization of procedures carried out at the European
   Commission'sinitiative,inparticularundertheServicesDirective(electronicregistration)and
   theTransparencyDirective(electronicconsultation),implyingtheimmediateinteroperability
   ofEuropeanregisters.

   Since the objective is to form a harmonized European market based on the same values,
   Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) indices should be published on the business and
   companiesregistertoenablecontractorstofindoutaboutpotentialpartners.

   

   

   




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           6) Objectives and solutions already implemented by the French business and
              companiesregister

       

       The National Council of Business Registrars and Commercial Courts and Infogreffe GIE use
       digitizationstandardswhicharerecognizedinEurope,nonproprietary,freeofcopyrightand
       alsocapableofinterconnectingwithotherauthorities,namely:



      The National Council of Business Registrars, as a partner of the Guichet Unique Franais
       "onestop shop" initiative (Ministry of the Economy, Industry and Employment  General
       DirectorateforCompetitiveness,IndustryandServices)hasalreadymadeitselectronicdata
       exchange,traceabilityandarchivingsystemmodulesavailabletotheFrenchStateinrelation
       toelectronicformalities.

      InDecree20091661dated28thDecember,2009,Francedecidedtoallowjudicialauthorities
       andtheMinistryofJusticeaccesstoelectronicallyviewregistrationsontheregistersoflegal
       noticesmaintainedbyregistrars.

      Infogreffe is partnering with the General Directorate for State Modernization for the
       implementation of a simplified electronic procedure for transferring a head office and
       submitting information to all relevant bodies (simplification procedure recommended by
       MinisterEricWoerth).

      SinceJuly2008,Infogreffehasmadecorporateaccountsofcompanieslistedonthebusiness
       and companies register available to users in XBRL format, the format used by numerous
       otherEuropeanregisters,andaccordingtoareferencesystemdeclaredtobecompliantby
       theNationalAccountingCouncil.Thiswasdoneinordertofacilitatecomparisonoffinancial
       dataataEuropeanlevel.

      The National Council of Business Registrars and Commercial Courts and Infogreffe GIE are
       monitoring initiatives to harmonize standards, especially in relation to annual accounts (in
       France around 800 international public groups apply IFRS standards) and European
       referencing of companies (BRITE proposal)and have already begun work on IFRS annual
       accounts.

       

       

       

       

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   III.   CONCLUSION

          TheFrenchbusinessandcompaniesregisterhasthereforealreadygainedaheadstart.Itis
          very willing to make its high valueadded knowledge available in any pilot with other
          Europeancountries,tostrengthenexchangesandtheinterconnectingofregisters.

          Werespectfullysuggestthat,whilethestatusquoisofcoursenotdesirable,neithershould
          theEuropeanCommissionbesatisfied,especiallyonatechnicallevel,withinterimsolutions,
          thelimitationsofwhichareindicatedinitsGreenPaper.

          

          

          

          

                                                                  MichelJalenques

                                                                  Chairman




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