EN    EN EN 
EN 1   EN  COMMISSION OF THE E UROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 2.7.2008 
SEC(2008) 2167 
  
COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT 
 
accompanying the 
Proposal for a 
 
DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL 
 
on the the establishment of a European Works Council or a procedure in Community-
scale undertakings and Community-scale gro ups of undertakings for the purposes of 
informing and consulting employees (recasting)  
  
SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT  
{COM(2008) 419 final} 
{SEC(2008) 2166} 
EN 2   EN INTRODUCTION  
The impact assessment concerns the envisa ged review of the European Works Councils 
Directive 94/45/EC and was carried out between October 2007 and June 2008. An inter-
service steering group was set up to  this end, with the particip ation of eleven services. An 
external study involving a survey of 10% of  existing European Work s Councils (EWCs) was 
commissioned. The second-stage consultation of the European social partners was launched in February 2008. While the Commission would have  welcomed negotiations between the social 
partners as the solution with pot entially the most positive impact , social dialogue talks were in 
the end not considered practical by the Eur opean Trade Union Confederation. The impact 
assessment has used external data and taken into  account the results of academic research as 
well as the views expressed by social partners and other stakeholders in response to the 
consultation. It has been revised twice to take into account the opinions of the Impact Assessment Board. 
P
ROBLEM DEFINITION  
The Directive establishes a right to transn ational information and consultation of the 
workforce on the progress of business and any significant changes envisaged in large-scale 
(1 000+ employees) transnational companie s. In 2007, 2257 companies employing 24 million 
workers fell within the scope of the Direct ive. EWCs, whether established before the 
Directive came into force, and hence excluded fr om compliance with the Directive, or set up 
through an agreement between a body repres enting the employees and the central 
management, were operating in 816 compan ies with some 14.5 million employees.  
Fourteen years after the adoption of the Directiv e, there are three problems that may require 
action:  
• The effectiveness of transnational informati on and consultation rights is not ensured, 
particularly as existing EWCs are not properly informed and consulted in over half of 
restructuring cases and, moreover, the take-up rate of EWCs is still relatively low and has 
not increased in recent years;  
• There are legal uncertainties giving  rise to shortcomings in th e application of the Directive 
and entailing costs and delays, particularly in cases of mergers a nd acquisitions and as 
regards the interplay between the national and European levels of information and consultation,  
• The concepts of information and consultati on in the 1994 EWC Directive differ from those 
contained in the most recent Directives in the field of workers’ information and 
consultation, and there are no clear rules fo r the interplay between these directives. 
These problems affect workers, companies and territories to a significant extent, and the 
potential role of EWCs in an ticipating and managing change in a sustainable way remains 
largely unexploited. The problems would worsen  without new EU acti on in a context of 
increased internationalis ation. Action is also necessary in order to support the completion of 
the internal market, sustainabl e competitiveness and social c ohesion. Given the transnational 
nature of EWCs, effective reme dies cannot be taken by the Memb er States. The legal basis for 
EU action is Article 137( 1)(e) of the EC Treaty. 
EN 3   EN OBJECTIVES  
The main goal of this initiative is to put EWCs in a position where they can fully play their 
role with regard to developments in undertak ings, the anticipation an d socially responsible 
management of change, and the fostering of genuine transnational social dialogue. The 
specific objectives are as follows: 
• To ensure the effectiveness of employees’ tr ansnational information and consultation rights 
in existing EWCs; 
• To increase the take-up rate (the proportion of  established EWCs compared to the number 
of companies falling within the scope of the Directive); 
• To ensure legal certainty in the setting up and operation of EWCs ; 
• To ensure better coherence and interplay be tween Community legislative instruments on 
information and consultation of employees. 
POLICY OPTIONS AND ASSESSMENT  
In order to achieve these objectives, three main options have been identified and, for each of 
them, the main potential impacts have been assessed: 
• The first option No new EU action  does not present any ability to meet the specific 
objectives. 
• The second option Non-regulatory approach — additional promotion of best practice  
would include an increase in communication actions, possi bly followed by a proposal for 
an increase in existing financial support fo r promotion actions and a recommendation on 
the setting up and functioning of EWCs. It ha s the potential to improve the dissemination 
of best practice and encourage a more effici ent functioning of EW Cs, without entailing 
additional direct costs for companies. Howeve r, by nature, it can address only to a limited 
extent the objective of ensuring legal certain ty and coherence in Community legislation 
and therefore needs to be associated with le gislative action (third option). Also, one needs 
to take into account that non-regulatory measur es are already in place and, therefore, any 
new measure could only have an additional impact.  
• The third option Review of existing legislation  would include amendments to the 94/45/EC 
Directive, mainly aimed at further specifying the concepts of inform ation and consultation, 
defining what is meant by transnational comp etence, linking the national and European 
levels of information and consultation, adap ting the subsidiary requirements, which are 
used as benchmarks for negotiation, establ ishing a right to trai ning, introducing an 
adaptation clause in the event of significant change in the structure of companies, and 
recognising the role of trade unions. For ea ch sub-option, the costs and benefits are 
discussed and a balance is established betw een the interests expr essed by the different 
stakeholders. Two sub-options — lowering thre sholds for the establishment of EWCs and 
registering agreements — are discarded as they are less cost-effective. The other sub-
options have the best prospects of achieving the specific objectives and show greater cost-
effectiveness. These sub-options should be  implemented together as none would be 
sufficient by itself to achieve the desired result. The content of the third option has been 
EN 4   EN adapted in some areas to take into account the results of the consultation and assessment 
exercise, as well as the interest of the vari ous stakeholders particularly regarding the 
content of the subsidiary requirements. Howeve r, as the capacity of such option to improve 
awareness-raising and dissemi nate best practices is li mited, it should therefore be 
combined with awareness-raising actions from the second option.  
CONCLUSION  
Taking into account its impact on es tablished objectives and cost -effectiveness, the preferred 
option is the third option Review of existing legislation , combined with awareness-raising 
actions from the second option Non-regulatory approach — additional promotion of best 
practice , starting with communication actions. The likely overall im pact of this option would 
be to improve the quality of dialogue within companies and enable all parties to better 
anticipate and manage change, while imposing some  additional direct costs. However, it is 
difficult to see this entailing significant addi tional costs for companies already complying 
with the requirements and aims of the existing Directive. It would also  contribute to making 
the existing Community instruments on inform ation and consultation more coherent (same 
definitions, interplay between national and transnational rules).