Brussels, 04/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The decision by the President of the European Parliament, Patrick Cox, not to challenge the legal base of the regulation on the statute for a European company before the European Court of Justice (see EUROPE of 2 February, p.8) has been warmly welcomed. In a statement, the Spanish Presidency, for example, welcomed the decision as a "positive contribution ... in the context of the Lisbon process and the preparation of the European Council meeting in Barcelona". In a telephone conversation between the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, and Patrick Cox, the former praised "this enlightened political decision which brings to a close 30 years of debate on this very important instrument. Now we can be certain that this important measure will be fully implemented by Member States". Mr Prodi underlined that the "Commission will continue to support the European Parliament's defence of its prerogatives as the institutions representing the peoples of Europe".
"This pragmatic decision" was also hailed by the Secretary General of the European employers' organisation UNICE, Philippe de Buck (not Philippe De Bulck was erroneously printed in our bulletin of 2 February, p.16). The employers note that "though the current statute is far from perfect, business is relieved to see that implementation of the European Company Statute will not be further delayed". Mr de Buck said that "if the EP had decided to challenge last year's decision on the European Company Statute, we would certainly have had to wait for several more years before businesses could have made use of this new statute". Confederal Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, Willy Buschak, understood the EP's appeal but felt that Mr Cox had made a "wise" decision since if the legal basis of this very important issue had been renegotiated, there would have been a risk of watering down workers' place in the Statute", but that would not now happen, he added.