Europe: Commissioner Barnier calls for stronger corporate governance

The new European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Michel Barnier, delivered a short speech earlier this week outlining his priorities and calling for stronger corporate governance: see here (html). More specifically, the Commissioner observed:

On top of supervision and regulation by public authorities, I am convinced that if we want to prevent future crises, financial institutions themselves, and other companies, need to change. We need stronger corporate governance. We may need to think about targeted measures to strengthen the responsibility and the independence of management boards, and look at the role of shareholders and external audit. And I am convinced that binding rules on remuneration across the financial sector would also be an incentive for taking less risk".