Recital 17

(17)The number of employees of a company is important information for third parties. For example, it is one of the elements determining the size category of a company. Companies need to include the average number of employees during the financial year in their financial statements under Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁸ . Given that in the future it will be possible to extract such data from the financial statements, Member States will be able to use that already existing information and make it publicly available free of charge through the system of interconnection of registers. When such information is made publicly available through the system of interconnection of registers, it should be clearly indicated on the portal that the information is about an average annual number, including reference to the specific financial year.