Employee Participation and Takeovers under EC Law

Abstract

Abstract At the turn of the twenty-first century, and profiled against a growing debate on globalization, important European Union (EU) legislation materialized that signals a growing common European understanding of employee involvement in corporate structures and transactions. The year 2001 saw the birth of Regulation 2157/2001 and Directive 2001/86 on the European Company,1 with a significant section on employee involvement. The year 2002 witnessed the adoption of the framework Directive 2002/14 on national-level information and consultation of employee representatives.2 The tight rejection in 2001 and the eventual approval in 2004 of the Directive 2004/25/ EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 21, 2004, on takeover bids (the Takeover Directive or the Directive)3 can be put into this context of an EU which is gradually shaping a common component of employee involvement in issues of corporate transactions and governance.4 The European Commission (the EC or the Commission) law provisions relating to the information and consultation of employees in the context takeovers are briefly discussed in this chapter. Before turning to sub-stance of these measures, we briefly look over the plain of European legislation on employee information and consultation, and address the more general issue of the relationship between corporate governance and employee participation in the EU.

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