“This is a file where perceptions seem to have taken the upper hand.” Jeroen Hooijer, head of DG Justice’s Corporate Governance Unit, could hardly conceal his annoyance at the hesitation of certain members of the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) during an exchange of views on the draft directive on single-member private limited liability companies, on 16 June.

Mirroring the initial strong scepticism of the S&D group, MEPs from the EPP become increasingly hesitant, raising the spectre of…