The European Commission will push for an end to investors' multiple voting rights across the bloc, Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said this morning.
Speaking to the Financial Times, he conceded he proposal could be controversial, saying it would take time to achieve and Brussels would have to act cautiously.
The commission failed in 2003 to persuade member states to ban a range of merger defences, including multiple voting rights, to try to boost merger activity.
The rights allow minority shareholders to control companies with little capital investment and are a merger defence common in Scandinavian countries.
"It is my goal to get the one share, one vote principle accepted across the 25 member states," Mr McCreevy said. "I come from this angle: the shareholder is king or queen," he told the FT. "The shareholder should be able to exercise his rights, and there should not be any restrictions."
More than a third of Europe's 300 biggest companies including BP, France's Carrefour and Volkswagen issue priority shares and stock with multiple voting rights, the FTsaid.
Mr McCreevy said he was more likely to issue a formal recommendation to companies to adopt his proposals rather than compel them with new laws.