Shareholder engagement is an essential component of corporate governance. Being a shareholder of a company gives you certain rights. By exercising these rights, shareholders can hold companies to account for their sustainability impacts, risks and opportunities and drive more responsible behaviour that manages and mitigates systemic risks such as climate change.

ShareAction has produced this report to help members of the European Responsible Investment Network and others understand and navigate differing legal frameworks at the national level which pose significant challenges to the effective exercise of shareholder rights across Europe. We also set out policy recommendations on how the EU can enhance the exercise of shareholder rights by revising the Shareholder Rights Directive (SDR II).