News item | 07-12-2022 | 10:00 am
It will be possible for legal entities such as public limited companies (NVs), private limited companies (BVs), associations, cooperatives and VvEs to hold a fully digital general meeting. This is stated in the legislative proposal of Minister Weerwind (Legal Protection) that went into consultation today.
Wish business and association life
There is a clear desire from the business community and associations to make it legally possible for general meetings to be held completely digitally. Many experiments with this were already done during the corona pandemic, because physical meetings could not take place due to the corona measures in force at the time. The law created a temporary possibility for this at the time, because the law states that general meetings must (partially) take place physically.
This temporary option expires in February, but the desire to hold a fully digital variant in addition to the already existing option of a partially digital (“hybrid”) general meeting remains unabated. The use of a fully digital variant ensures, among other things, that members and shareholders from all over the world (independent of location) can participate in the general meeting.
Requirements
There are conditions attached to holding a fully digital general meeting. For example, a digital meeting must reflect a physical meeting as much as possible and participants must also be able to fully participate digitally. Members and shareholders must be able to participate in the meeting and to speak with both images and sound. In addition, the general meeting of members or shareholders must agree in advance with the option of holding digital meetings.
Internet consultation
Do you want to think about this subject? The Ministry of Justice and Security invites stakeholders to respond to the bill. With this input, the bill can be further improved. The internet consultation is open until 6 February 2023.