Norway's sovereign wealth fund has sharpened its warning over weakening shareholder rights by telling the European Commission that inconsistent national rules across the EU are undermining investors' ability to vote effectively. In a May 6 letter, Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the Government Pension Fund Global, said uneven implementation of the Shareholder Rights Directive has left voting deadlines, confirmation procedures and annual meeting formats fragmented across member states. The fund said that creates operational hurdles even for a global investor with stakes in roughly 1,080 EU companies worth about €232 billion. The intervention adds a concrete EU policy dimension to the fund's broader critique that shareholder rights are being diluted across major markets through structures and rules that favor founders, insiders or management. NBIM said varying cut-off dates for voting, limited confirmation that ballots are properly counted and the rise of virtual-only annual general meetings can weaken shareholder engagement. It also reiterated concerns about multi-class share structures, calling for class-by-class disclosure of voting power and maintaining that shareholders should approve new equity issuance. The fund manages about $2.3 trillion, owns on average 1.5% of all listed companies globally, and casts more than 110,000 votes a year across around 7,200 companies worldwide. Fund officials have previously said the erosion of shareholder rights is visible in the United States, the UK, Europe and Hong Kong, and warned that competition for IPOs is encouraging more departures from traditional governance standards.