On 21 May 2025, negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement on the proposal for a directive to revise legislation on European Works Councils. This decision will permit the facilitation of the creation of EWCs as well as improve their funding and strengthen their protection.
As outlined in press releases from the two institutions, the updated text seeks to better define what constitutes transnational matters, aiming to ensure that decisions with considerable consequences for employees in several EU Member States will require informing and consulting the European Works Council (EWC), ‘without this being extended to day-to-day decisions or issues that only affect employees in a trivial way’. The final wording of the definition, and whether it enhances clarity or introduces new ambiguities, is still to be assessed.
By improving the process of consultation, the resources made available to European works councils and their access to justice, the agreement reached today between the Council and the Parliament addresses the weaknesses of the 2009 directive and further strengthens the representation of workers’, emphasised Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, Polish Minister for Family, Labour and Social Policy.
Access to judicial proceedings
The directive addresses the inclusion of a goal to promote gender balance within EWCs. The European Parliament has indicated that the target is ‘to have at least 40% of their seats are allotted to members of either gender’.
A key addition to the revised text also addresses a long-standing and sensitive issue: the ability of EWCs to enforce their rights through legal means. It ‘strengthens provisions on access to judicial proceedings and (where relevant) administrative proceedings, including by ensuring that costs relating to legal representation and participation are covered’. In other terms, this means that employers will bear the legal expenses if an EWC decides to take legal action. Furthermore, Member States—particularly Ireland—will be required to adapt their national legislation to ensure that EWCs can effectively exercise this right.
In addition, companies will be obliged to provide access to relevant information and must justify any refusal to disclose it, especially when invoking confidentiality.
Two meetings per year in presence
To ensure the effective enforcement of EWC rights, the Council has emphasized that financial sanctions ‘should be sufficiently dissuasive, while also taking into account different factors such as the gravity, duration, consequences, and intentional or negligent nature of the offence’. While the European Parliament had initially pushed for penalties on par with those under the RGPD regulation—where fines can reach up to 4% of global turnover—it appears to have revised its position during negotiations.
Nonetheless, Parliament did secure important gains. Notably, it succeeded in increasing the required number of EWC meetings from one to two per year, with a clear stipulation that these gatherings must be held ‘in person’. MEPs also strengthened the role of employee representatives ‘by guaranteeing that experts assisting EWCs, including trade union representatives, can attend management meetings in an advisory capacity’.
‘We don’t want to reinvent the wheel,’ stated rapporteur Dennis Radtke (EPP). ‘We just want to strengthen existing rights, simplify procedures, and close the gaps that have repeatedly caused frustration in practice. Employee participation is not an obstacle but a key success factor – especially in the context of the digital and green transitions’.
The provisional agreement now awaits formal approval by the Member States ambassadors (Coreper) and the European Parliament. Once legally and linguistically reviewed, the new rules will be officially adopted. Member States will then have two years from the directive’s entry into force to transpose it into national law, while its provisions must be fully implemented within three years.
