Industrial Relations in Europe 2012 - European Commission - Europa
Industrial Relations in Europe 2012 - European Commission - Europa
Industrial Relations in Europe 2012 - European Commission - Europa
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should be amended; c) other non-legislative measures at EU level would merit consideration<br />
and d) they would <strong>in</strong>itiate a negotiation under Article 155 TFEU.<br />
On the employers' side, virtually all the respondents consider that a review of the SE Directive<br />
is not advisable or necessary despite acknowledg<strong>in</strong>g that the procedure for employee<br />
<strong>in</strong>volvement might be cumbersome. They do not see that there is a lack of legal certa<strong>in</strong>ty nor<br />
a risk that the SE legal form is used to weaken employees' <strong>in</strong>volvement rights. On the<br />
employees' side, the respondents consider that the complexity of the procedure is not a<br />
problematic area of the SE Directive, i.e. they do not see any need for simplification.<br />
Nevertheless, they see a risk that the SE legal form may be used to weaken employees'<br />
<strong>in</strong>volvement rights.<br />
<strong>Europe</strong>an Private Company Statute<br />
The <strong>Commission</strong> adopted on 25 June 2008 a proposal 122 for a <strong>Europe</strong>an Private Company<br />
(SPE) Statute, which has been discussed <strong>in</strong> the Council without any f<strong>in</strong>al outcome. Member<br />
States cannot agree notably on allow<strong>in</strong>g SPEs to separate their registered office and<br />
headquarters and the regime for employee participation. For this reason, the <strong>Commission</strong><br />
<strong>in</strong>cluded <strong>in</strong> its consultation on the future of <strong>Europe</strong>an Company Law questions relat<strong>in</strong>g to<br />
next steps regard<strong>in</strong>g the SPE statute 123 . This consultation was closed on 14 May <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
Transnational company agreements<br />
Transnational company agreements have ga<strong>in</strong>ed significance over the decade s<strong>in</strong>ce the first<br />
<strong>in</strong>itiatives <strong>in</strong> 2000. By early <strong>2012</strong>, 224 such agreements were recorded <strong>in</strong> 144 companies,<br />
mostly headquartered <strong>in</strong> <strong>Europe</strong>, cover<strong>in</strong>g over 10 million employees.<br />
Follow<strong>in</strong>g its 2008 Staff Work<strong>in</strong>g Document 124 , the <strong>Commission</strong> set up an expert group on<br />
transnational company agreements, the task of which was to monitor developments and<br />
exchange <strong>in</strong>formation on how to support the process underway. 125 The expert group, br<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g<br />
together experts from Member States and the EU social partners, academics and researchers,<br />
representatives of <strong>Europe</strong>an <strong>in</strong>stitutions and the International Labour Organization as well as<br />
company actors, held several meet<strong>in</strong>gs between 2009 and 2011.<br />
The expert group issued a report <strong>in</strong> early <strong>2012</strong>, which conta<strong>in</strong>s a wealth of <strong>in</strong>formation on the<br />
phenomenon of transnational company agreements <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g concrete examples, reviews the<br />
ma<strong>in</strong> open issues and sets out options to address them.<br />
122 http://ec.europa.eu/<strong>in</strong>ternal_market/company/epc/<strong>in</strong>dex_en.htm<br />
123 http://ec.europa.eu/<strong>in</strong>ternal_market/consultations/docs/<strong>2012</strong>/companylaw/questionnaire_en.pdf<br />
124 On "The role of transnational company agreements <strong>in</strong> the context of <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>ternational <strong>in</strong>tegration"<br />
125 The documents emanat<strong>in</strong>g from the work of the expert group as well as related documents can be accessed<br />
under: http://ec.europa.eu/social/ma<strong>in</strong>.jsp?catId=707&langId=en&<strong>in</strong>tPageId=214<br />
315