40 Amendments of Dominique MARTIN related to 2015/2222(INI)
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the involvement of employees in supervisory boards is a crucial step in the further democratisation of the economynot linked to any of the EU’s areas of exclusive competence set out in Article 3 TFEU, wherebyas this is not a matter of legislative burdens which may be tackled by cutting red tape and by deregulationmatter therefore falls within the scope of the national legislation of the Member States, and whereas the European Union should therefore confine itself to establishing framework provisions and/or non-binding guidelines;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas, under the present conditions of global division of labour, and internationalisation, accelerated corporate change and the upcoming transformation through digitisation, i.e. the so-called ‘4th Induit is important to preserve national legislation, which is the fruit of social and historical Rdevolution’, prosperity elopments peculiar to each Member State and is therefore the maximum number of people cbest fitted to each state’s social structures, and be achieved only by the pre-emptive framing of the economy and industrial retter placed to meet the needs of their respective populations;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas forms of worker participation at company level exist in 18 Member States of the European Union and in Norway, but theyand differ enormously owing to their respective economic and social historical development15; __________________ 15 http://fr.worker- participation.eu/National-Industrial- Relations/Across-Europe/Board-level- Representation2/MAP-Board-level- representation-in-the-European-Economic- Area2Aline Conchon (2015) La voix des travailleurs dans la gouvernance d’entreprise: https://www.etui.org/Publications2/Reports /Workers-voice-in-corporate-governance.- A-European-perspective
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas this diversity of national legislation and forms of worker representation makes it impossible to create uniformity among these national bodies of legislation by means of European company law;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas the scope and intensity of worker participation vary greatly, but owing to the diversity of national legislation, and whereas it has proved effective, and whereas the countries concerned are essentially economically successful ones16; __________________ 16 http://www.worker- participation.eu/About-WP/European- Participation-Index-EPI
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas, according to some studies (which differ from one Member State to another and must therefore be treated with caution), companies with employee participation have tended to weather the crisis better than others17; __________________ 17 Kleinknecht R. (2015): Employee participation in corporate governance: implications for company resilience http://ejd.sagepub.com/content/21/1/57.abs tract
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas, on the other hand, some states have complex worker participation legislation, including different applicability thresholds according to the number of employees, and whereas such legislation may have an adverse economic impact, particularly by restricting the creation, growth and development of SMEs and micro-enterprises;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the economic model based on the short-term ‘shareholder value’ principle has sometimes failed in the financial crisis;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K
Recital K
K. whereas the existing form of the European Company (SE) is also used to avoid national forms of corporate co- determincreation of the internal market has resulted in increased competition between the Member States of the European Union, which has been particularly reflected in social legislation;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K a (new)
Recital K a (new)
Ka. whereas the freedom of establishment within the European Union makes it easier for transnational companies to choose the site of their headquarters on the basis of opportunist criteria relating in particular to Member States’ social and tax legislation;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K b (new)
Recital K b (new)
Kb. whereas, furthermore, the European directives referred to here, relating in particular to European and transnational companies, have aggravated the phenomenon of playing off different Member States’ legislations – in this case on worker participation – against each other; whereas, in particular, the existing form of the European Company (SE) has enabled some transnational companies to avoid national forms of corporate co- determination which are more favourable to workers;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on single-member private limited liability companies (SUP)19 can also be used to circumvent existing national forms of worker representation on supervisory boards, and the Committee on Employment therefore rejected this proposal in its opinion of 29 June 201520; __________________ 19 COM(2014)0212. 20 PE549.466v02-00.
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas company law legislative acts at European level and / or such acts applied cross-border are often drawn up without taking into account labour law, and often have adverse repercussions on the social rights of Member State workers;
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O
Recital O
O. whereas there do not yet exist at EU level any general standards for employee representation framework rules governing employees' right to information, in particular Directive 2002/14/EC of 11 March 2002 establishing a general framework for informing and con supervisory boards; lting employees in the European Community;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O a (new)
Recital O a (new)
Oa. whereas the following directives, among others: (i) 2001/86/EC of 8 October 2001 supplementing the Statute for a European Company with regard to the involvement of employees; (ii) 2003/72/EC of 22 July 2003 supplementing the Statute for a European Cooperative Society with regard to the involvement of employees; (iii) 2005/56/EC of 26 October 2005 on cross-border mergers of limited liability companies; and (iv) 94/45/EC of 22 September 1994 and 2009/38/EC of 6 May 2009 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 have already established reference frameworks governing informing and consulting employees and their participation for European companies, European cooperative societies and transnational companies in particular;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O b (new)
Recital O b (new)
Ob. whereas these directives rightly refer the determination of the details of employee consultation and participation to negotiations between social partners and national law in the Member States;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital P
Recital P
P. whereas the adoption of any further legislative acts in European company law without the regulation of worker participation will lead to a further erosion of national rules;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls onEncourages the Commission and its agencies on a regular basis and systematically to gather, evaluate and publish data and good examples relating to worker representation at supervisory board level;
Amendment 112 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls onEncourages the Commission to establish permanent joint expert groups of the social partners tasked with gathering over a lengthy period of timegather information on the development and good examples concerningof employee representation on supervisory boards and examples of good practice in this area; points out that they should examine in particular employee representation at enterprise, local, regional and national levels, as well as at transnational and European supervisory board levels;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Underlines that, when gathering this information, the various kinds of employee participation and trade union representation in the Member States should be studied and taken into account;
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Underlines that, when gathering this information, the thresholds for the applicability of national legislation on worker participation and the economic impact of this legislation, particularly on very small businesses and SMEs, should be studied and taken into account;
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Underlines that this kind of information gathering would help merely to determine non-binding guidelines or examples of good practice and could not form all or part of legally-binding acts, and that each Member State would have full authority to decide how to use the outcome of the information gathering and these non-binding guidelines or examples of good practice, depending on the requirements of its national legislation;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
Amendment 138 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the Council, the Member States and the Commission to respect and protect existing national forms of worker representation at supervisory board level in the EU and to counter any attempt to use existing EU law to circumvent or abuse such arrangements by an appropriate by making appropriate changes in the underlying European Treaties or acts and, in particular, the above-mentioned directives, especially where these concern European and transnational companies;
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Commission and the Council, in the event of newa revision of legislative acts, particularly in the area of European company law, to determine and publicise the impact on European andthe impact on national forms of worker participation through an appropriate impact assessment procedure and take appropriate measures to counter any adverse consequencepublish the results;
Amendment 147 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Underlines that, in the context of the current economic tensions in Europe, any additional administrative, legal or financial burdens should be avoided if these might hinder economic activity and, in particular, the creation, development and growth of very small businesses and SMEs;
Amendment 162 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls onEncourages the Commission to introduce in the Directive on the European Company (SE) minimum EU rulnon-binding European guidelines governing employee representation on supervisory boards, rather than referring to national law or revising the Directive so th and to refer to the national law of each Member State the involvement of workers in supervisory boards is not solely determined by conditions when a company is established, but account is also taken of subsequent developments and, in particular, changes in the number of employeesquestion of whether or not the guidelines are amended;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Commission to introduce in the Directive on mergers of limited liability companies minimum European rules for employee representation on supervisory boards, ra, as well as in all the relevant European corporate law directives, in particular those referred to herein, European rules prohibiting that workers be subject to legislation less favourable to therm than referring tothe applicable national legislation, in particular as regards the participation of workers;
Amendment 183 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls onEncourages the Commission to revise Directive 2004/25/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 200421 on takeover bids to ensure that the workers of a bidding company are also consulted, rather than just those of the company subject to the takeover bid; __________________ 21 OJ L 142, 30.4.2004, p. 12.
Amendment 189 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls onEncourages the Commission in all legislative acts on European company law to provide that the place of a company’s registered offices must be identical with its actual place of business so as to prevent the circumvention of the requirement regarding employee representation on supervisory boards, such as would be possible under the proposal for single- member private limited liability companies (SUP), and, instead of this proposal, to submit a proposal for a directive on the cross-border transfer of the registered office, as decided by the European Parliament; __________________ 22Resolution recommendations to the Commission on the cross-border transfer of the registered office of a company P6_TA(2009)0086.; of 10 March 2009 with
Amendment 203 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls onSuggests that the Commission to develop standards for rulnon-binding guidelines governing employee representation on supervisory boards that can be applied as a universal model in the form of a directive to all European corporate law directives which takes into account, but does not replace, existinghave no legal impact on existing national rules on information and consultation;
Amendment 216 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. RecommeDemands that this Directive should be applicable to all forms of company with a supervisory board at European level, i.e. account should be taken ofe arrangements for worker participation in public and private companies, partnerships and limited companies and also workers employed in the affiliated parent and subsidiary companies should be regulated by the national legislation of Member States;
Amendment 226 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
Believes that workers´ representatives on European supervisory boards shcould have a say in all fundamental decisions of a company and oversee the management board, without interfering in the management board´s right to manage the company;
Amendment 230 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. SuggestAffirms that the nature and scope of decisions requiring approval should be determined in this directive by minimum standards, which should be further development byapplication or non- application of such non-binding guidelines is covered by the national rules in theof Member States23; __________________ 23 e.g. Article 95 AktG, Austria.
Amendment 239 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Stresses that workers' representatives on supervisory boards shcould have the same rights and powers as the representatives of the management and / or the owner;
Amendment 244 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. DemandSuggests that steps be taken, in appointing the supervisory board, to ensure that the sexes are represented according to the gender ratio in the company's workforce; calls on the Council in this connection to expedite the Parliament- backed proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on improvon it on the basis of considerations relating in particular to their functions withing the gender balance among non-executive directors of companies listed on stock exchanges and related measures24; __________________ 24 COM(2012)0614.company, their professional skills and their level of experience;
Amendment 248 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Stresses that any legal provision enjoining a specific representation of men and women on supervisory boards, in particular on the basis of considerations other than those referred to in paragraph 16 above, would be contrary to principles of equality and non-discrimination referred to in Articles 20 and 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union;
Amendment 256 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
Amendment 262 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
Amendment 277 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20