WRITTEN QUESTION E-3892/00

by Robert Goebbels (PSE) to the Council

(20 December 2000)

Subject: Review of the directive on European works councils

General opinion among European trade unionists with regard to European works councils is currently bordering on the hostile, reflecting disillusionment on the part of European trade unions after the enthusiasm generated by initial voluntary agreements.

Following the conclusion of over 400 voluntary agreements between 1994, the year in which the directive was adopted by the Council of Ministers, and 1996, the deadline for transposition of the provisions thereof into national legislation, negotiations have been brought to a successful conclusion in no more than about 30 multinational undertakings. Since a total of between 700 and 800 industrial groups are currently involved, this can only be described as a minimal success rate. Obviously progress is extremely slow.

Has the transposition into national law of Council Directive 94/45/EC(1) of 22 September 1994 on the establishment of a European works council or a procedure in Community-scale undertakings and Community-scale groups of undertakings for the purposes of informing and consulting employees been the subject of a general review?

Does the Council not consider that a number of provisions of the directive require amendment with regard to:

1. communication and information,

2. the training of representatives,

3. improved recognition of European trade union federations?

(1) OJ L 254, 30.9.1994, p. 64.

Reply

(12 March 2001)

The transposition of the European Works Council (EWC) Directive 94/45/EC into national law has been the subject of a review conducted by the European Commission, which has sent a Report on the outcome of the review to the European Parliament and the Council in April 2000 (Commission document COM(2000) 188 final). It states inter alia, that the implementation of transnational representation is already effective in that nearly 600 groups with a Community dimension, including the largest ones, signed pre-Directive agreements before 22 September 1996 or signed agreements based on Article 6 of the Directive after that date. The Report also states that 450 of these were pre-Directive agreements (based on Article 13), of which one can conclude that 150 were based on Article 6 and concluded after that date.

The Report does not contain any particular value judgement as regards the number of agreements made, but it does mention a couple of reasons for the drop in numbers after 22 September 1996.

It should also be noted that the EWC Directive does not require agreements on information and consultation of employees to be made between labour and management in the companies or groups of companies covered by the Directive. Such agreements are only an option available to the parties, which can also choose not to conclude agreements, but to apply the subsidiary requirements of the Annex to the Directive, as adopted in the legislation of the Member State in which the central management is situated. For this reason the Council is not in a position to comment on whether the number of agreements made is sufficient or not.

Nor can the Council comment on whether the provisions of the Directive relating to communication and information, to the training of representatives, and to the improved recognition of European trade union federations require amendment since, on the one hand, the follow-up of the implementation of Community legislation is, in the first instance, the responsibility of the Commission and, on the other hand, the Commission has not submitted any proposal for an amendment to the Directive.