McCreevy may backtrack on audit committees 

The proposed 8th company law directive would make it mandatory for larger public companies to have audit committees. The proposal has met with much opposition from industry as being too rigid and removing options from national systems of corporate governance.

At a speech in Luxembourg on 28 June, Mr McCreevy spoke about the controversy. Although stating that "most companies who take corporate governance seriously already have audit committees", he said that he would be "prepared to live with some flexibility" on the issue.

Parliament’s legal affairs committee has already voted to amend the proposal and to allow national governments more leeway in setting rules (see EurActiv 22 June 2005). If the Commission is now ready to compromise, the Parliament’s amendments may be incorporated into the final version of the directive.