During that time interested parties were able to contribute comments on the proposals, which the commission drafted in its own consultation paper, regarding the new regime on disclosure requirements.
The consultation paper of the commission suggested a division of disclosure duties, in periodic and ongoing obligations,[6] for example for financial reports (periodical) and ad hoc notifications (ongoing), and a focus on the publications of those information through a medium on a Europe-wide basis[4] as well as the control of these duties by the national supervisory authorities.
Until the end of the consultation period the commission received 90 contributions from market participants all over Europe, whereas most of the answers came from British and German interest groups.
The Commission specified the information requirements regarding issuers, listed in a regulated market at a stock exchange, especially in terms of financial reporting, voting rights, directors' dealing, stock options, employee shares schemes and equal treatment of shareholders.
This unofficial version covered all of the topics discussed in the former consultation process, such as periodical financial reporting, transparency in shareholder structure and publication of information.
The final version of the Directive 2004/109/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of transparency requirements in relation to information about issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market was adopted on 17 December 2004.
The issuer has to publish a financial report covering the first half of the fiscal year after the end of this relevant period.
This notification requirement can also be based on the following cases: This notification has to include the amount of voting rights held after acquisition/disposal, the day on which the event took place, the chain of controlled undertakings or the name of the (directly invested) shareholder from which the notifying party gets attributed the voting rights.
Furthermore, a notification is required when a natural person or legal entity holds financial instruments, which result in the entitlement to acquire voting rights, whereas the acquisition is based on the holder's initiative.