“To succeed, ‘EU Inc.’ (the new status created by the 28th regime for companies) should not introduce additional obligations or more stringent requirements than those already in place nationally. This would undermine its purpose and significantly reduce its uptake by entrepreneurs, investors and growing businesses”, warned Markus J. Beyrer, director-general of the employers’ organisation BusinessEurope, on Tuesday 7 July, a few days after the presentation of the report steered through the European Parliament by René Repasi (S&D, German) (see EUROPE 13899/18).
Existing European and national legislation already provides strong safeguards and rules governing employee participation. “Introducing new labour-law requirements or additional employee participation rules, specifically for ‘EU Inc.’, is neither necessary nor justified”.
Such changes “would alter the legal basis and political balance of the proposal, seriously jeopardising – or at the very least substantially delaying – the adoption of an initiative that Europe urgently needs to enhance its competitiveness”.
While shadow rapporteur Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, French) welcomed “the rapporteur's attention to ensure that labour law or fiscal processes are not circumvented by future EU Inc. companies” and the addition on dispute settlement, he does however add that he “disagrees” with certain solutions, notably “codetermination, where national regimes could become applied in other jurisdictions throughout the EU, or when [it] excludes some sectors from the proposal”.
EU Inc. should also “be able to list on regulated markets ”, he concluded. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)