The European Union currently has 27 member states without the United Kingdom, joining countries on both political and economic bases. From the economic point of view, free trade among the member countries is the most important principle. Free trade is allowed by the single market. The common bases are also supported by harmonization in many other areas. In 2009 the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union (specifically Directive 2009/101/EC) instituted new rules for disclosure. Enterprises must publish regularly their financial statements irrespective of the country where they are registered. The Directive included the concept of a common European e-Justice portal which functions as a central platform for business information. This initiative also included efforts to interconnect national business registers. The national business registers provide information about the enterprises registered according to the national rules.

The national business registers have been interconnected since June 2017 in the European Union. The interconnection makes possible searches for information about enterprises registered not only in any EU member state but also in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (European Economic Area). This paper focuses on these interconnected business registers and their usefulness for users of business information. The research will be based on the comparability of the information gained from different national registers and it will show if the interconnection has the desired effects. Full comparability may or may not be confirmed. If there are any detected weaknesses or discrepancies in the interconnection of national business registers, the registers will be notified. Identifying failures is necessary for developing suggestions for improvement.

The paper is one of the outputs of the research project “Financial characteristics of enterprise in bankruptcy” registered at Grant Agency of Academic Alliance under the registration No. GAAA 10/2018.