• The following points were emphasised by the European Commission as the appropriate aims of the proposed revision of the EWC:

    • legal certainty for all those involved in the EWC on both the employees’ and the employers’ side should be extended;

    • the effectiveness of employees’ rights to cross-border information and consultation should be guaranteed, thereby boosting the EWC’s efficiency;

    • the practical application of the EWC Directive should be improved and above all the number of EWCs being set up should be increased significantly;

    • finally, acquired rights as regards employee information and consultation in the EU should be given greater coherence.

  • The ETUC fully concurred with these aims. In the actual formulation of those provisions of the Directive that were to be changed or revised, however, the Commission’s proposal fell far short of the recommendations laid down as cornerstones of a future EWC revision in earlier communications. All too clearly massive lobbying by European employers found sympathetic ears in the European Commission.

  • In the face of manifest deficiencies in the functioning of many EWCs and its extensive list of demands for improving the EWC Directive the ETUC could not be satisfied with the Commission’s proposed changes. Nevertheless, it accepted the Commission document as the basis of the now pending EWC revision in the context of the European legislation process.