A further step towards administrative simplification has been taken. Tanson presented her bill to the justice committee in parliament on Wednesday to digitalise the notary’s office.

The draft law aims to transpose a European directive to allow the online incorporation of companies. Once the text is adopted, public limited companies (SA), limited liability companies (sàrl) as well as partnerships limited by shares (SCA) will be able to be created without having to appear in person. This does not annul the principle of the notary’s responsibility as “the basis for the authenticity of the notarial deed,” writes the ministry in a press release.

Even if it means digitalising the notarial act, the government has decided to go further and provides for “the possibility of drawing up notarial acts in electronic format.” This concerns, for example, the constitution of a limited partnership or a civil partnership. More precisely, “with the exception of wills, all notarial acts may be drawn up in electronic format under the conditions of notarial law and subject to the agreement of the notary,” the bill states. When asked about the reason for this exception, the ministry did not respond to Delano’s sister publication Paperjam.

An exchange platform is being created

It remains possible for the founders of a company to appear physically. The ministry did not specify what would happen if a notary refused to offer the electronic option.

Also included in the text are amendments to the law requested by the EU directive to strengthen the exchange of information via the Business Registry Interconnection System (BRIS).

To make this possible from a legal point of view, changes are made to the civil code and to the amended acts on the organisation of the notary’s office, on civil companies and on the commercial and company register. From a practical point of view, the ministry plans to set up a notarial electronic exchange platform, on which the Chamber of Notaries is currently working. All electronic documents will then have to go through this platform, with the exception of wills.

The law was presented on 15 February and must now go through the entire legislative process. It will come into force on the first day of the month following its publication in the official journal. This excludes Article 15, which concerns the duty of member states to ensure that the origin and integrity of documents filed online in the company register can be verified electronically.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.