1. The subscription, acquisition or holding of shares in a public limited liability company by another company within the meaning of Article 1 of Directive 2009/101/EC in which the public limited liability company directly or indirectly holds a majority of the voting rights or on which it can directly or indirectly exercise a dominant influence shall be regarded as having been effected by the public limited liability company itself.

In order to avoid unnecessary burdens for certain market participants and to clarify who actually exercises influence over an issuer, there is no need to require notification of major holdings of shares, or other financial instruments as determined by Article 13 that result in an entitlement to acquire shares with regard to market makers or custodians, or of holdings of shares or such financial instruments acquired solely for clearing and settlement purposes, within limits and guarantees to be applied throughout the Community. The home Member State should be allowed to provide limited exemptions as regards holdings of shares in trading books of credit instit ...[+++]utions and investment firms.

Some of these amendments will be incorporated in the by-laws of M6, in particular the composition and powers of the Supervisory Board, the continued limitation of 34% on the voting rights of RTL and the commitment of Suez to hold 5% of M6 for at least 3 years.

Both provisions are linked to a 1959 agreement between the Federal Government (Bund) and the Land of Lower Saxony, which in principle reserves 20% of VW shares to each of those two public actors and represents a public settlement contract having predefined the content of the subsequent VW-law.

Under the terms of most bilateral agreements, including those covered by the judgement today, European carriers must keep over fifty percent of their shares in the hands of the nationals of their home country, or risk losing their international traffic rights.

In order to take into account various traditions and methods of supervision in the EU, the proposal would give Member States the option of maintaining some quantitative investment limits (e.g. maximum x% of the portfolio in shares).