Business information throughout the European Union will be easier to access and more integrated under new regulations both proposed and coming into effect this week.

This week marked the deadline for Member States to implement the first phase of a 2012 directive requiring the interconnection of business registers, according to an update by the European Commission. The first phase requires that business registers maintain up-to-date company information which third parties can rely on. Also, business registers must make information available on limited liability companies within 21 days of receipt of the documentation in most cases.

The second, more complicated phase of the directive consists of the establishment of the Business Registers Interconnection System (BRIS), which will link various business registers throughout the European Union through the existing European e-Justice Portal or other national portals. The European Commission is tasked with drafting an implementing act with technical details for the system by next July. Member States will have two years to connect to the system.

In addition to providing a central repository of information on a company's legal form, its seat, capital, and legal agents, the linked system will allow for email communication with the registers themselves concerning cross-border mergers and company branches located in other Member States, the commission said.

When the proposal was first adopted in 2011, the commission noted that the EU consists of a hodgepodge of business registers. Denmark and Sweden have registers at the national level, while others like Austria have registers organized on a regional level. Still others, such as Germany, maintain business registers on a local level. A previous directive mandated all Member States to ensure their business registers were electronic by 2007. Subsequent regulations on cross-border mergers and branch disclosure heightened the need for an integrated system of registers, the commission said.

Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier said at the time that an integrated register was needed due to the growth of cross-border business “at an unprecedented rate" and there was a need to be able to verify the legitimacy of businesses in other Member States. The directive “aims to improve this legal certainty both for consumers and for businesses,” he said in a statement accompanying the proposal.

Officials also pointed out that information is costly to access in other Member States and the information on a company's foreign branches is often outdated. The business register directive should save companies money as well as provide greater legal certainty for cross-border procedures and boost transparency, the commission said.

In a similar vein, the commission is proposing the interconnection of national insolvency registers throughout the bloc. The goal is to establish an EU-wide network of insolvency registers to benefit businesses, creditors, and investors, the commission said. The commission launched the project this week by announcing the linking of seven Member States' databases – Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, and Slovenia. The information is available through the e-Justice portal.

“Access to cross-border insolvency information is crucial for a well-functioning internal market and European area of justice,” Johannes Hahn, the new EU commissioner in charge of justice, said in a statement. “Businesses are essential to creating prosperity and jobs and if we want investors to place their money in other European countries, insolvency information must be easily accessible, multilingual, and transparent. By connecting the insolvency registers to the e-justice portal, we will be doing exactly that.”

Proponents say the move, which comes in the midst of the EU's bid to modernize insolvency laws, will provide real-time access to insolvency data necessary to make key business decisions, free access to the information in all of the languages of the EU, and explanations of key terms and systems used by the participating Member States. Earlier this month, council ministers agreed in principle on a requirement for Member States to publish key insolvency information electronically through the e-Justice portal. That requirement is expected to be formally adopted by the end of the year.

The e-Justice portal, launched in 2010, logged more than 1.6 million visits in 2013, the commission said. The portal already includes information on laws of Member States and related information such as legal aid and judicial training, and a new search tool for cross-border case law is being added.

Topics