Recital 8

(8)In order to facilitate the formation of companies and the registration of branches and to reduce the costs, time and administrative burdens associated with those processes, in particular by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’) as defined in Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC ⁴ , procedures should be put in place to enable the formation of companies and registration of branches to be completed fully online. This Directive should not oblige companies to use such procedures. Member States should, however, be able to decide to make some or all online procedures mandatory. The current costs and burdens associated with formation and registration procedures derive not only from administrative fees charged for forming a company or registering a branch, but also from other requirements which make the overall process longer to complete, in particular when the physical presence of the applicant is required. In addition, information on such procedures should be made available online and free of charge.