Translation of "Régime de fusion des neiges " (French → English) :

(22a) By 31 December 2010 and in order to provide a binding framework of tax neutrality, the Commission should propose a directive for taxation of fund mergers following the principle of tax neutrality laid down in Council Directive 90/434/EEC of 23 July 1990 on the common system of taxation applicable to mergers, divisions, partial divisions, transfers of assets and exchanges of shares concerning companies of different Member States and to the transfer of the registered office, of an SE or SCE, between Member States and Directive 2005/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005 on cross-border mergers of limit ...[+++]ed liability companies.

I would in particular like to mention the takeover directive, the new merger regime and public procurement procedures.

2. However, the rules in force concerning employee participation, if any, in the Member State where the company resulting from the cross-border merger has its registered office shall not apply, where at least one of the merging companies has, in the six months before the publication of the draft terms of the cross-border merger as referred to in Article 6, an average number of employees that exceeds 500 and is operating under an employee participation system within the meaning of Article 2(k) of Directive 2001/86/EC, or where the national law applicable to the company resulting from the cross-border merger ...[+++]does not

7. When the company resulting from the cross-border merger is operating under an employee participation system, that company shall be obliged to take measures to ensure that employees’ participation rights are protected in the event of subsequent domestic mergers for a period of three years after the cross-border merger has taken effect, by applying mutatis mutandis the rules laid down in this Article.

Any future mergers between the companies in this sector would fall to be scrutinised under either the national or Community merger regime.

Directive 90/434/ECC (the so-called "Merger Directive"), already provides for a solution regarding a common system of taxation applicable to mergers, divisions, transfers of assets and exchanges of shares, in cases where these involve different Member States.