Browsing by Author "Jääskeläinen, Santeri"

The Directive (2019/2121) on cross-border conversions, mergers and divisions entered into force on 1 January 2020, bringing cross-border conversions and divisions finally under the same legal framework that already existed for cross-border mergers. The Directive is the last in a long line of regulatory efforts spanning many decades seeking to further facilitate the cross-border activity of corporations within EU and thus enhancing the working of the Single Market. This thesis seeks to critically examine the new Directive and the reasons behind its adoption. The thesis provides evidence that there indeed existed a real need for new legislation further harmonising cross-border operations within EU. The normative analysis of the legal reality before the adoption of the new Directive shows evidence that the freedom of establishment as granted by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union was, especially with relation to cross-border conversions and divisions, quite illusory without proper procedural framework set in place. The analysis also shows that while the rules concerning cross-border mergers were already harmonised to a degree, there were still clear deficits in the legislation that hindered companies’ possibilities to fully utilise the opportunities granted by the Single Market. The adoption of the new Directive is thus a tremendous achievement, if not just for the fact that it brings cross-border conversions and divisions under EU level legislation for the first time. Further analysis of the Directive shows that it also contains many sensible amendments made to the old legislation, one of which is the newly constructed framework concerning the protection of different stakeholders. Sadly, the analysis shows that the new Directive is not completely without problems. The Directive contains numerous inconsistencies in how it regulates the different operations, and the new rules set out for the scrutiny of legality are likely to further complicate cross-border operation procedures. The Directive also does not solve the problems relating to different corporate laws between Member States, even though it offers rules harmonising the operation procedures. The thesis concludes offering some possible solutions to these most glaring problems with the new Directive.