Business registers examine and store company information, such as information on a company's legal form, its seat, capital and legal representatives, and they make this information available to the public. In his opinion the EA Vice-President calls on the European Commission to propose a legal framework which would replace current voluntary agreements between business registers.  A system of interconnected business registers with a common database and standardised entries would help companies obtain information on their partners. Dr Silberg believes information should be made available for free or for modest charges and that the new framework should be able to fully exploit current available IT technologies. He considers that a pan European subsystem of electronic identification with full use of electronic signature would be helpful in interconnecting business registers.