“Don’t be British, be Australian” is the message from Claire Bury, the EU’s corporate governance official.

Speaking at the UK’s National Associate of Pension Funds investment conference in Edinburgh recently, Claire outlined the Commission’s approach to the forthcoming Governance Green Paper which will be launched in April. Not exactly the best timing in the world for the governance community given the Spring AGM workload, neverthless, Bury is hopeful that investors will actively contribute to the debate.

The Green Paper aims to cover three main areas:

• Board structures across the EU
• Shareholder engagement,
• EU governance rules – notably the principle of “comply or explain”

Commenting ont he Stewardship Code, Bury said: “The UK Code is a useful development. But it focuses on the ‘downstream’ area – typically the relationship between company directors and shareholders’ agents, usually fund managers. We would like to take a look further ‘upstream’, at the relationship between pension funds and their fund managers.”

Ben Mathews, company secretary at Rio Tinto, and fellow panellist at the conference session remarked that Rio’s Australian shareholders had been “plucky” and “clear about what they want”. At which point Bury urged the delegates  that “now is the time to contribute to the debate – and don’t be British, be Australian.”

Stewardship was a strong theme of this year’s Investment Conference with keynote presentations from Lindsay Tomlinson, Chairman of the NAPF and Baroness Sarah Hogg from the FRC.

 Click Here to view their presentations.

Last Updated: 14 March 2011