Political agreement reached over the revised EWC Directive

It is reported that the EU institutions have reached a political agreement on the revision of the EWC Directive on 21 May 2025.

In the trilogue (among EU Commission, EU Council and EU Parliament) and under the Polish presidency, a provisional agreement has just been struck on the revision of the 2009 Directive that aims at making the representation of workers in large companies more effective, by rendering the rules governing EWCs clearer, more efficacious and easier to enforce. Beware that this is a provisional agreement, subject to further scrutiny and approval from the permanent representatives of the member states in the days to come. 

With that caveat, and although the details of the agreement (and of the revised Directive) are yet to be published, it appears that;

1. certain definitions and rules are being refined, including the notion of ‘transnational matters’ (within the realm of any EWC), and the principles of confidentiality allowing withholding of information and data;
2. access to (judicial and administrative) justice is being reinforced, including full coverage of legal and operational costs by management, and
3. the remedies and sanctions mechanisms of the Directive have been reviewed, providing for financial penalties in case of infringement, which must be dissuasive, proportionate and effective.

Some of the key and more controversial changes initially requested by the EU Parliament (and countered by the EU Commission in its January 2024 proposal) have not yet been reported on, such as;

1. the fate reserved for all legacy EWC agreements concluded prior to the first 1994 Directive (still accounting for over 30% of currently existing EWC agreements),
2. the fierce remedies for infringement which the EU Parliament was seeking (such as injunctive relief, suspension of management decisions, exclusion from public tenders),
3. the imposition of financial sanctions similar to the GDPR sanctions.

Unclarity remains on the legacy agreements, but based on the EU Council’s press release, it may be expected that the most controversial topics mentioned above will not have made it in the political agreement.  Also, other minor topics (and the ‘small print’) still need to be clarified in the draft Directive to be published. 

Transposition of the new Directive into national law is required within two years (and not one year as the EU Parliament had put forward) after entry into force of the revised Directive.   

All in all, as was expected, it is obvious that the legislative pendulum is still swinging in the direction of the labor movement and that the regulatory framework for cross-border information/consultation in the EU will become more cumbersome and onerous for business, albeit perhaps less dramatic than one could have feared for. 

We will come back with a more detailed analysis and critical comments once the full text of the draft Directive is available.