The meeting was held on 7th November 2018 with the participation of the Secretary General for Commerce and Consumer Protection and members of the competent legislative drafting committee.
The purpose of the meeting was to inform SEV members in detail on the various legal and tax aspects arising from the new draft bill on company transformations (conversions, mergers and acquisitions).
The new legislative incentive, long needed by the market, is destined to simplify procedures, strike out existing ambiguities, deficiencies and conflicts between the company and tax law provisions that led to the creation of the phenomenon of «arbitrary» transformations.
The Secretary General for Commerce and Consumer Protection and members of the competent legislative drafting committee elaborated and explained in depth the new provisions and amendments, while experts representing SEV members had the chance to emphasize on pending issues such as the harmonization with the relevant tax provisions.

A General Board Members Meeting was held on November 19, 2018 at SEV premises in order to relaunch SEV initiatives on Corporate Governance and address the issues of malpractice that recently surfaced in the Greek market.
Mr. Fessas, President of SEV and representatives of the Hellenic Banks Association, the Athens Stock Exchange, the Hellenic Capital Market Commission and the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations jointly proposed the amendment and update of the existing framework on corporate governance towards a more concrete, effective and modern framework that will activate both companies and public authorities to work more responsibly towards raising the level of corporate governance within Greek companies. To this end, they announced the reestablishment of the Hellenic Corporate Governance Council formed by SEV, the Athens Stock Exchange and the Hellenic Banks Association, as a means of responsible action on behalf of the private sector to assist in the realization of these goals.
Moreover, SEV proposed a set of other legislative improvements that will allow for the creation of enhanced transparency and visibility of corporate actions and make commercial publicity a tool for the establishment of accountability and trust in the market.

On Wednesday 5th December 2018, only one month before the new law on the operation of Sociétés Anonymes (SAs) entered into force, SEV held a subject specific workshop under the title “Recent amendments in the law on Sociétés Anonymes. Company law reforms in the service of attracting investments and simplifying business environment”
The scope of the workshop was to inform all businesses and investors on the forthcoming amendments on the law on SAs, the improvements and simplifications as well as new tools for attracting investors and reflect on possible proposals regarding recent corporate governance issues.
Among the workshop participants were the General Secretary for Commerce and Consumer Protection, selected competent representatives of the public administration, well respected legal experts, representatives of public and private institutions and business executives specialized in company law.

A panel discussion under the title “Lobbying with Transparency” was held on Friday 23th November 2018, with more than 100 attendants raising the issues of accountability, corruption, conflict of interest e.tc among business and other stakeholder’s representatives . The event was co-organised by Transparency International Greece and the Hellenic Alumni Association LSE and SEV participated in the discussion with Mr. Harry Kyriazis, Advisor to the Board of SEV. In his initial remarks Mr. Kyriazis highlighted that “only via a transparent and open dialogue between stakeholders and public administration, the consultation process is substantial and effective. This can lead to better decisions and consequently to better regulation”. He also added that “lobbying with transparency and clear rules can contribute to this end, and at the same time balanced representation of stakeholders is safeguarded”. While closing, he commented that “lobbying could be regulated in Greece”, and proposed the establishment of a relevant registry of actual representative bodies. Thought he stressed that the accompanying provisions should be as simple and clear as possible in order to be effective.
SEV is registered at the EU “Transparency register”, along with other 143 registrants based in Greece, and publicly publishes its positions on a regular basis.

After seven years of reforms in business licensing procedures, the situation has improved, but collective efforts are still required for the transformation of the “licensing experience”. The recent reforms assessed as “positive, yet there is much work to be done” according to the remarks of SEV‘s General Council meeting held on 24 October 2018. The President of SEV, Mr. Fessas, underlined that “we have not yet reached the point that businesses demand: to know in advance where they can set up their activity, with predictability, legal certainty and fast procedures”.

SEV and the Licensing Working Group, presented comprehensive proposals towards reaching the target of further 30% reduction in licensing timeframe by 2020, based on standardized licensing requirements. The main measures for accelerating the investment licensing procedures include:

1. One stop shop for licensing procedures.
2. All-in-one permit, within a central licensing authority
3. Immediate activation of the Electronic Licensing System (Integrated Information System – OPS ADE) which is still in the pilot phase (today Notify Business)
4. Removal of categorization based on a nuisance (as an installation criterion) and replacement by environmental provisions (setting up a specialized working group with the participation of businesses community)
5. Provisions for integrated deviations in industrial construction (currently requires 4-6 months for a simple decision)
6. Immediate expansion of operating notification for all economic activities listed in Α2 subcategory (L 4014/2011)
7. Clarifications on the provisions for relocation in case of land use change
8. Αbolition of the ban on installing new medium nuisance level activities in Attica, within business parks
9. Immediate adoption of secondary legislation on control and oversight (L.4512/2018) in order to ensure competition rules, simplified procedures and effectively measures against counterfeiting
10. Enabling certified external assessors (eg. for fire safety, building and environmental licensing checks)
11. Revision of the law on licensing of seaside industrial uses
12. Abolition of submission of individual studies for environmental licensing (eg. traffic effects)
13. Training of public sector personnel and those who will be in charge for the implementation of the new simplified procedures, in order to avoid misinterpretations
14. Codification of legislation and formulation of a simplified implementation guide