Lawyers, bankers and regulators have launched a new lobby group on governance in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the damaging dispute between the European Union and the US over the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation.

Speaking at a dinner in Brussels to mark the launch of the Transatlantic Corporate Governance Dialogue last week, Frits Bolkestein, commissioner of internal markets for the EC, said recent "costly and painful experiences" underlined the need for closer ties. Bolkestein said: "We cannot avoid this regulatory spillover. Sarbanes-Oxley was not an exception, it is the rule."