Progress: Procedure completed
Role | Committee | Rapporteur | Shadows |
---|---|---|---|
Lead | EMPL | MENRAD Winfried ( PPE-DE) | |
Committee Opinion | JURI | MILLER Bill ( PES) |
Legal Basis:
EC Treaty (after Amsterdam) EC 308Subjects
Events
In this communication, the Commission reviews Council Directive 2001/86/EC of 8 October 2001 supplementing the Statute for a European company with regard to the involvement of employees, established by Council Regulation (EC) No 2157/2001. In preparation for this review, the Commission commissioned a report by independent experts and addressed to the Member States and to the European Social Partners a questionnaire together with the draft report.
The communication notes that the Directive has been operational throughout the EU only since 2007. According to official data, 146 SEs had been registered by mid-June 2008. Only 13 Member States had SEs registered in their territory, and of these only two (Germany and the Czech Republic) had registered more than 10.
According to the majority of Member States and the European social partners there is a lack of practical experience applying the Directive. The commission agrees with them that it is too early to revise it now . However, the Communication has identified some issues that deserve further consideration.
Employee participation at group level : s ome Member States and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) have requested that the Directive be clarified as regards the issue of employee participation at group level. Indeed, in certain Member States employee participation is exercised also at group level, i.e. the employees in the subsidiaries have participation rights in the controlling company. Therefore, a literal interpretation of the provisions could result in employees of companies enjoying participation rights at group level being deprived of these participation rights after the SE has been created - due to the fact that the company in which they work is not a participating company within the meaning of the
Directive but merely a subsidiary of a participating company.
Changes occurring within the SE after its creation : s ome Member States have raised the issue of the Directive not containing provisions to deal with changes occurring within the SE after its establishment. The issue of SEs registered without employees or without operations and the fate of employees’ involvement when the SE starts operations and engages employees has been particularly pointed out.
Employees’ participation rights when an SE converts to a public limited company : Germany and the ETUC have pointed out that in the absence of any limitation in the Directive, the conversion of an SE into a public limited company (permitted by Article 66 of the SE Regulation) could result in the loss or reduction of participation rights if the form of company adopted is not subject to employee participation or if the level of employee participation is reduced.
The complexity of the procedure for the involvement of employees : s ome Member States have pointed to the need to simplify and harmonise the procedures established by the different Directives concerning information, consultation and participation of employees. BusinessEurope considers that the overly complicated and structured provisions around employee participation and the creation of the Special Negotiating Body have been a substantial obstacle impeding companies in making greater use of the European Company Statute. Greater flexibility is needed so as to strengthen the negotiating autonomy of the social partners at company level, and in so doing allow for agreed solutions tailored to the needs of the company and its employees.
Other issues : the ETUC, while considering that it is too early to revise the Directive, highlights the following issues:
the size of the organ where participation is exercised should not be excluded from the negotiations; in order to ascertain the level of participation for the purposes of applying the ‘before and after’ principle, account should be taken not only of the participation rights exercised in practice but also of the participation rights granted by national legislation but not exercised in practice; employees’ representatives within the SE should be given a uniform level of protection; the representative body should be involved, at least, at the same time as information and consultation is required by national law; representation of the particular interests of younger employees and of disabled employees should be ensured at European level.
Conclusion : the Commission acknowledges the complexity of the procedure instituted by the Directive for employee involvement. However, it should be recalled that the adoption of the Directive was the result of a delicate compromise among Member States that took more than 30 years of negotiations to achieve.
Taking into account that the Directive is complementary to Regulation (EC) No 2157/2001 and that the Regulation is due for review at the end of 2009, the Commission will at that time consider the appropriateness of revising both instruments and the scope of any such revision.
In the meantime, the Commission will monitor the correct implementation of the Directive, and will continue to promote exchange of best practices and to enhance capacity-building of all stakeholders by way of seminars, training courses, studies and financial support for projects submitted by employer and employee representatives.
The Council took note of the latest information provided by the French Presidency with a view to reaching political agreement on the proposal for a directive on the involvement of employees in the European company, which was a necessary adjunct to the Regulation on the Statute for a European company. The presidency expressed its intention of making every effort to reach agreement before or at the Nice European Council. Following this presentation and contributions from delegations, the presidency drew the following conclusions: 1) the discussions revealed the determination of the 15 Member States to quickly find a way of breaking the deadlock on this issue since it was an essential element in completing the internal market and contributed to a more general effort to increase employee involvement; 2) Member States stressed that the involvement of employees in the European company should: - take account of the diversity of national cultures as regards industrial relations; - give priority in this context to free negotiations between participating companies and employees. Against this background, there was wide agreement to involve employees in the European company; 3) Member States noted that at this stage the only question remaining open was that of the provisions applicable in the absence of an agreement between employee representatives and management, where only a minority of the employees concerned benefited from such rights. They felt that one solution to resolve this difficulty would perhaps be to make the transposition or non-transposition of the reference provisions on participation optional for Member States. They agreed to continue their efforts to define arrangements to implement such a solution with a view to enabling the Nice European Council to decide on the basis of a compromise acceptable in the 15 Member States.
Commissioner Monti had informed the Council of the mandates and working calendar of the independent group of experts charged with identifying solutions designed to break the deadlock currently affecting the proposal for a regulation on the Statute for a European Society (SE). The mandate given to the group, which was chaired by Mr Etienne Davignon, former Vice-President of the Commission, was restricted to the investigation of solutions affecting the position of employees within the framework of the SE. The group was to present its report in early 1997. The current proposal on the SE had first been submitted to the Council in 1989, but the project had stalled because of the irreconcilable positions adopted on the provisions for employee participation in the decision-making bodies of the SE. This problem also affected proposals relating to European statutes for cooperative societies, mutual societies and associations.
The presidency noted the interest being shown by the Council in continuing to examine appropriate solutions for introducing a Statute for a European Company, which remained an important objective in the process of completing the internal market. A large majority of the delegations hoped that solutions would be found to this and other problems, in the light of the communication from the Commission on procedures for informing and consulting the workforce, and demonstrated their willingness to continue with this work while at the same time taking into consideration the guidelines that the Social Affairs Committee was to produce on the subject of the said communication.
Documents
- Follow-up document: COM(2010)0481
- Follow-up document: EUR-Lex
- Follow-up document: COM(2008)0591
- Follow-up document: EUR-Lex
- Final act published in Official Journal: Directive 2001/86
- Final act published in Official Journal: OJ L 294 10.11.2001, p. 0022
- Text adopted by Parliament after reconsultation: T5-0417/2001
- Text adopted by Parliament after reconsultation: OJ L 072 21.03.2001, p. 0033-0065 E
- Decision by Parliament: T5-0417/2001
- Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
- Committee final report tabled for plenary, reconsultation: A5-0231/2001
- Committee report tabled for plenary, reconsultation: A5-0231/2001
- Amended legislative proposal for reconsultation: 14732/2000
- Amended legislative proposal for reconsultation published: 14732/2000
- Debate in Council: 2313
- Debate in Council: 2226
- Debate in Council: 2182
- Debate in Council: 2164
- Debate in Council: 2145
- Debate in Council: 2127
- Debate in Council: 2102
- Debate in Council: 2094
- Debate in Council: 2081
- Debate in Council: 2079
- Debate in Council: 2060
- Debate in Council: 2051
- Debate in Council: 1970
- Debate in Council: 1930
- Debate in Council: 1929
- Text adopted by Parliament confirming position adopted at 1st reading: OJ C 342 20.12.1993, p. 0015-0030
- Text adopted by Parliament confirming position adopted at 1st reading: T3-0681/1993
- Decision by Parliament: T3-0681/1993
- Committee final report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: OJ C 342 20.12.1993, p. 0002
- Committee final report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A3-0364/1993
- Committee report tabled for plenary confirming Parliament's position: A3-0364/1993
- Reconsultation: EUR-Lex
- Reconsultation: COM(1993)0570
- Modified legislative proposal: EUR-Lex
- Modified legislative proposal: COM(1991)0174
- Modified legislative proposal published: EUR-Lex
- Modified legislative proposal published: COM(1991)0174
- Text adopted by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: OJ C 048 25.02.1991, p. 0055-0113
- Text adopted by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T3-0015/1991
- Decision by Parliament: T3-0015/1991
- Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
- Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: OJ C 048 25.02.1991, p. 0004
- Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A3-0372/1990
- Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A3-0372/1990
- Economic and Social Committee: opinion, report: CES0379/1990
- Economic and Social Committee: opinion, report: OJ C 124 21.05.1990, p. 0034
- Legislative proposal: EUR-Lex
- Legislative proposal: COM(1989)0268
- Legislative proposal published: EUR-Lex
- Legislative proposal published: COM(1989)0268
- Legislative proposal: EUR-Lex COM(1989)0268
- Economic and Social Committee: opinion, report: CES0379/1990 OJ C 124 21.05.1990, p. 0034
- Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: OJ C 048 25.02.1991, p. 0004 A3-0372/1990
- Text adopted by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: OJ C 048 25.02.1991, p. 0055-0113 T3-0015/1991
- Modified legislative proposal: EUR-Lex COM(1991)0174
- Reconsultation: EUR-Lex COM(1993)0570
- Committee final report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: OJ C 342 20.12.1993, p. 0002 A3-0364/1993
- Text adopted by Parliament confirming position adopted at 1st reading: OJ C 342 20.12.1993, p. 0015-0030 T3-0681/1993
- Amended legislative proposal for reconsultation: 14732/2000
- Committee final report tabled for plenary, reconsultation: A5-0231/2001
- Text adopted by Parliament after reconsultation: T5-0417/2001 OJ L 072 21.03.2001, p. 0033-0065 E
- Follow-up document: COM(2008)0591 EUR-Lex
- Follow-up document: COM(2010)0481 EUR-Lex
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