Shell shareholders will be allowed to vote at a meeting on Friday on the oil and gas group’s plans to move to the UK to simplify the structure. Plans to become a fully British company on paper were announced last month.

According to Shell, streamlining the shareholder structure should ensure companies can operate faster and more flexibly. The shareholders’ meeting will begin at 10:00 am and will be held in Ahoy, Rotterdam. With the switch, Shell will continue to be listed on the AEX index in Amsterdam.

Shell will also lose its royal title, Royal Dutch, with a move to come. The Group proposed a name change to shareholders, in which case Royal Dutch would disappear from its name. Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said that the company is no longer claiming status due to the relocation of its headquarters. He called it “very painful and regrettable” to lose the title.

Van Beurden stressed that the switch would have little impact on jobs in the Netherlands, apart from some employees moving to London after Van Beurden and finance director Jessica Uhl. Shell has around 8,500 employees in the Netherlands. The company will remain active in the Netherlands, among others with the development of renewable energy and other energy innovations.

Cabinet said it was “deeply surprised” and “deeply sorry” that Shell was transferred, then Economy Minister Stef Blok said. The employers’ organization VNO-NCW spoke of a “massive drain on the Netherlands and a deteriorating Dutch business climate”.

Milieudefensie indicated that the move had no consequences for the environmental organization’s lawsuit against Shell. Milieudefensie filed a lawsuit to force the company to drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. In late May, a court in The Hague ruled that Shell’s climate plan had not gone far enough and that the company must urgently do more to reduce its emissions.