Free movement of businesses in the EU
The transfer of operational headquarters from one country to another is stil penalized in the EU.
Advocate General Maduro's recent Opinion in Case C-210/06 (Cartesio Oktató és Szolgáltató bt) supports the thesis that a company registered in an EU Member State (Hungary, in this case) should be able to transfer its operational headquarters to another EU Member State (Italy) without restrictions.
According to Maduro's opinion, any domestic rules impeding the transfer of a company registered office from one EU Member State to another are incompatible with EC Law.
One immediate result of this case, depending on outcome, will mean that exit charges applied on some countries will need to be removed to facilitate the free movement in the EU.
In the absence of EU regulations on this particular matter, the countries apply domestic legislation on these circumstances. In Hungary this means that the company moving will need to liquidate their assets in that country, which in AG' opinion is contrary to EC Law.
It is still to be seen if the ECJ follows the Advocate General Opinion. We welcome the move in any case and hopefully this will further help the development of a real EC market with no barriers to free movement of business and capital.
