The EU Commission advocates more involvement of shareholders in determining the salaries of top managers. In this context two reports were presented which both come to the conclusion that even though corporate governance standards are being applied they are not used frequently enough.
According to the report on salaries of board members the amount of salaries is quite often disclosed. However, some EU member states do still not yet recommend to have shareholders vote on this issue. In the second report the EU Commission comes to the conclusion that adherence to governance standards has improved even though not all standards are observed by all member states. Thus, in some member states a former chief executive officer (CEO) of a company can become the chairman of the supervisory board of this very company which may affect the independence of the supervisory board. 