In July 2001 the Bank helped to organize, at the Italian-German Centre at Villa Vigoni in Como, a meeting of experts from both countries to analyze the characteristics of their respective economies and the productive and financial structure and governance of their firms with a view to assessing the implications for company law. Discussions centred on the type of company law that would be most appropriate, in principle, for the respective structures and thus able to foster their growth; how far company law at the time in both countries would be able to achieve this; and what directions the reform of corporate models was taking at the time.
The proceedings of the meeting, in which renowned academic experts in the field of law and economics from both countries took part, was also attended by two members of the Bank’s Directorate and by representatives of industry and of the supervisory authorities from Italy and Germany.
The papers on German company law explained that the country had not yet established a definitive system of corporate governance and was under pressure from two directions: to preserve the typical features of German law and to adopt the international standards of corporate governance demanded by institutional investors.
The papers dealing with the situation in Italy took some considerations regarding the country’s productive structure, the changes under way and the fragility this was causing as the starting point for an examination of the main points of the reform process taking place at the time: simplification, review of the right to draft by-laws, protection of minorities and of the right to withdraw from companies, and the regulation of corporate groups. They also stressed the need for company law, competition law, labour law, contract law and civil justice to be complementary in order to ensure the efficient regulation of business.
