EU corporate governance rules focus on relationships between a company’s management, board, shareholders and other stakeholders, and therefore, on the ways the company is managed and controlled. 2003 EU Corporate Governance Action Plan In 2003 the Commission initiated a formal action plan aimed at enhancing corporate governance across Europe ('Modernising Company Law and Enhancing Corporate Governance in the European Union—A Plan to Move Forward') (the 2003 Action Plan). The Plan derived from the findings of a 2002 report of the High Level Group of Company Law Experts chaired by Jaap Winter (the Winter Report) tasked with creating a modern regulatory framework for company law in Europe. The main objectives of the 2003 Action Plan were to: • strengthen shareholders' rights and protection for employees, creditors and the other parties with which companies deal, while adapting company law and corporate governance rules appropriately for different categories of company • foster the efficiency and competitiveness of business, with special attention to some specific cross-border issues The 2003 Action Plan led directly to the adoption of

This Practice Note provides an overview and comparison of the following four key pieces of EU digital legislation: • Regulation (EU) 2022/1925, the EU Digital Markets Act (EU DMA)—see Practice Note: The EU’s Digital Markets Act • Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the EU Digital Services Act (EU DSA)—see Practice Note: The EU Digital Services Act • Regulation (EU) 2023/2854, the EU Data Act—see Practice Note: The EU Data Governance Act and EU Data Act, and • Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, the EU AI Act—see Practice Note: The EU AI Act As part of its objective to digitally transform the EU to achieve ‘A Europe Fit for the Digital Age’, the EU has adopted several pieces of legislation applicable to the digital world. This package of legislation has a great impact but some uncertainties remain. Notably, parts of the legislation will overlap and different regulators are responsible for enforcement. The Council of the EU and the industry has stated that the Commission should focus on the implementation of this legislation and how they all fit together. See News Analysis:

MLex: A network of certified and aspiring out-of-court dispute-settlement bodies has urged national authorities tasked with enforcing the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), as well as the European Commission, to improve public awareness of users’ rights to challenge content moderation decisions under the DSA. The bodies cited low visibility and the limited uptake of the appeal option provided under the law.

This tracker sets out key dates relating to developments and initiatives in EU regulation of civilian drones (also referred to as unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs) including consultations, legislative changes and related guidance of the European Union Aviation Agency (EASA), reports and announcements. For more information on the regulation of drones in the EU, see Practice Note: Drones—the EU legal framework. To follow the progress of initiatives taken by the UK on drones, see Practice Note: UK drones—tracker. Key developments Date Type of development Summary 3 December 2024 Legislation EASA publishes updated Easy Access Rules for Standardised European Rules of the Air, which consolidates the amendments to the operating rules on the use of Air Traffic Management and Air Navigation Services systems and constituents in the Single European Sky airspace, the relevant International Civil Aviation Organization provisions and radio communication failure procedure, the related acceptable means of compliance and guidance material and the requirements for the operation of manned aircraft with a vertical take-off and landing capability. 25 November 2024 Legislation EASA publishes Easy Access

MLex: The proposed EU corporate sustainability due-diligence law appears on the brink of being scrapped or delayed by what could be years after the EU’s governments failed to agree to approve it in a vote on 28 February 2024. Germany, Italy and a slew of other countries abstained from the vote, and the law might need to be renegotiated after a new European Parliament is constituted following elections in June 2024. Governments worry about the law for the heavy burden it could put on their companies

MLex: EU sustainability reporting duties included in the Taxonomy Regulation or the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive will be simplified through an ‘omnibus’ regulation, European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, said on 8 November 2024. The new law will group ‘the questions we are asking’ EU companies and the ‘data points we are collecting, often redundant, often overlapping’, according to von der Leyen.

Mlex: The EU's dumping and countervailing duties on imports from China of continuous filament glass-fiber products (used in the automotive, electronics, and construction sectors) might be increased, MLex has learned.

MLex: EU imports of trichloroisocyanuric acid from China will be subject to punitive dumping duties for an additional five years, the European Commission said Wednesday. The measures, now reaching up to 78.9 7%, come after a partial interim review started in 2024, following a request made by Ercros and Electroquímica de Hernani.

EU Law analysis: The recently adopted Regulation (EU) 2023/1543, the e-Evidence Regulation imposes new obligations on providers of electronic communications services. The new Regulation will have direct implications on such businesses as automobile manufacturers and other businesses that offer such services. Dr Andreas Schuler of Dentons considers the new EU Regulation, how it may impact automobile manufacturers, the types of services that fall under the scope of this regulation, which types of data the Regulation concerns, proceedings and consequences for recipients of Orders.

MLex: Publishers, platforms and online advertisers are likely to see the moribund EU e-Privacy Regulation proposal killed off after it has spent years mired in legislative discussions, MLex has learned.

ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. STOP PRESS: On 30 April 2024, Regulation (EU) 2024/1183, the European Digital Identity Framework (EUDI Regulation), has been published in the Official Journal of the EU (see: LNB News 30/04/2024 39). The Regulation entered into force and amended Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, the EU eIDAS Regulation on 20 May 2024. This Practice Note has now been archived—for more information on the EU eIDAS Regulation as amended by the EUDI Regulation (also knows as the Revised EU eIDAS Regulation or EU eIDAS 2.0), see Practice Note: The revised EU eIDAS Regulation (EU eIDAS 2.0). This Practice Note provides an overview of Regulation (EU) 910/2014 (eIDAS Regulation) which sets the legal framework for electronic signatures in the EU. It defines who can use electronic signatures and in what context. To ensure that electronic signatures can be created and validated anywhere in the EU, a number of standards were identified for their implementation. This Practice Note only covers EU law, for more

This tracker sets out key dates and information relating to proposed changes to privacy and electronic communications laws in the EU. It includes consultations, discussion drafts, progress reports and opinions related to Directive 2002/58/EC, the EU ePrivacy Directive. Reforms to the current EU ePrivacy Directive have been underway for some time in the EU, with the proposed ePrivacy Regulation intended to bring a more harmonised approach across EU Member States. The proposed Regulation covered privacy and related aspects of online communications, direct marketing, analytics, spamming and cookies. Its scope was wider than the ePrivacy Directive and it would have applied to all electronic communications service providers in the EU, as well as non-EU providers providing such services to EU residents. That includes ‘over-the-top’ communications providers (such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger), as well as organisations providing customer Wi-fi access and machine-to-machine communications. However, the proposal for an ePrivacy Regulation was withdrawn in February 2025 (see: LNB News 12/02/2025 67). Latest EU position on the ePrivacy reform After four years of difficult negotiations, the Council of the EU reached