Study on Monitoring and Enforcement Practices in Corporate Governance in the Member States

This Study provides an overview of the various monitoring and enforcement mechanisms in the Member States of the European Union concerning corporate governance rules that are laid down in codes of corporate governance. It assesses the level of compliance of companies with the provisions of corporate governance codes and examines the availability and quality of explanations for deviations from these codes for a sample of 270 listed companies from 18 Member States. Two surveys were conducted in the framework of this Study. They aimed at evaluating the perception of corporate governance codes by director institutes and business associations on the one side, and EU shareholders on the other side. On this basis, the Study evaluates the effectiveness of the different monitoring and enforcement systems and presents suggestions to improve their effectiveness.