REPORT OF THE SUPERVISORY BOARD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE CODE ROLE OF THE SUPERVISORY BOARD annual accounts is vested with shareholders. For further details about AEGON’s corporate governance please refer to page 61 and following. The duties of the Supervisory Board, which consists currently of nine non-executive members, are to supervise the Executive Board’s management and to advise the Executive Board. With the active assistance of its four specialized committees, the Supervisory Board prepares nominations, resignations and  the compensation of Executive Board members and discusses the quarterly results and the accounting principles, dividends, capital, internal control procedures and risk management, as well as the corporate strategy. We carried out our responsibilities in 2003 in close cooperation with the Executive Board, holding five regular meetings. The attendance at the meetings was over 95% on average. The meetings were often preceded or followed by informal meetings and Committee meetings. During a combined meeting of the Audit Committee and the Supervisory Board, AEGON’s risk management was discussed in-depth.  We discussed the draft of the Dutch Corporate Governance Code following its publication in July 2003. The final version of the code was published on December 9, 2003 and came into effect on January 1, 2004. We share the views of the Committee that drafted the code that the principles and best practice provisions included therein are reflective of the most current general views of good corporate governance in relation to Dutch listed companies. We have given our support to the implementation of the code within AEGON N.V. At the annual General Meeting of Shareholders to be held on April 22, 2004, we hope to engage shareholders in a discussion of AEGON N.V.’s corporate governance as described in the corporate governance section of this annual report (pages 61 and following). This chapter describes in detail the application of the code by AEGON.  Following our proposal to shareholders that AEGON N.V. exempt itself from the Dutch ‘large company regime’, shareholders approved this proposal during an extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders held on May 9, 2003. This proposal had also been on the agenda of the annual General Meeting of Shareholders held on April 17, 2003, but shareholders could not decide on this issue during that meeting because the statutory required quorum was not represented. Following the decision taken by shareholders on May 9, 2003, AEGON N.V.’s Articles of Incorporation were amended on May 26, 2003. The most important changes concern the appointment of members of the Executive Board and Supervisory Board and the adoption of the annual accounts. Henceforth, the authority to appoint members of the Executive Board and Supervisory Board and to adopt the In accordance with the Board’s Rules and Regulations, preparatory meetings preceded the regular meetings, attended by the chairman and vice-chairman of the Supervisory Board as well as the chairman and the chief financial officer of the Executive Board. All Executive Board members attended the regular meetings, held in March, June, August, November and December 2003. In December 2003, the Supervisory Board discussed the Executive Board’s and its own composition and performance, without the Executive Board being present. The meetings, during which the quarterly and annual results were discussed, were also attended by the director of the Group Finance department. Representatives from  9 AEGON GROUP ANNUAL REPORT 2003 SUPERVISORY BOARD MEETINGS CORPORATE GOVERNANCE T. REMBE  O.J. OLCAY  D.G. EUSTACE  H. DE RUITER  M. TABAKSBLAT W.F.C. STEVENS  K.J. STORM  L.M. VAN WIJK F.J. DE WIT