The European Corporation

The evolving strategies and structure of large European firms are examined in a comparative and historical context, and in the context of a range of hypotheses associated with Alfred Chandler.

Discusses ownership and control change in Europe in the decades following the 'global corporate governance revolution' in the 1990s.

This successful textbook remains the only offering for students of European company law, and has been fully updated.

For the past two decades corporate governance reform in Europe has been guided by the ‘shareholder value’ model of the firm. That model has been discredited as one of the major causes of the financial and economic crisis. In a new book published by the ETUI an alternative approach to corporate governance is presented by members of the GOODCORP network of researchers and trade unionists. This new approach, entitled the Sustainable Company, draws on both traditional ‘stakeholder’ models of the firm and newer concerns with sustainability. The main elements of the Sustainable Company and the institutions needed to support it are presented. Key themes in the book are the need for worker ‘voice’ in corporate governance and for a binding legislative framework to promote sustainability. Individual chapters deal with the issues of worker involvement, employee shareholding, sustainability-oriented remuneration, international framework agreements, NGO-trade union relationships, reforming financial regulation and carbon taxes and emissions-trading schemes.

The European Company Statute is one of the most important pieces of company legislation adopted so far by the European Union. Its aim is to regulate the internal functions of a business operating in more than two European countries. This book provides an analysis of the history, structure, legal basis and likely impact of the ECS.

The harmonization of company law has always been on the agenda of the European Union. Besidesthe protection of third parties affected by business transactions, the founders had two other objectives: first, promoting freedom of establishment, and second, preventing the abuse of such freedom. The European Commission issued its Company Law Action Plan in 2003. In this volume researchers of the Jan Ronse Institute for Company Law of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven present five chapters on the main priorities of the Action Plan: capital and creditor protection,corporate governance, one share one vote, financial reporting, and corporate mobility. The book also includes responses and ensuing discussions by reputed European company law experts.

The European Company Statute (ECS) is one of the most important pieces of company legislation adopted so far by the European Union. Its aim is to regulate, on a voluntary basis, the internal functions of a business operating in more than two European countries at the same time. However, its implementation by companies requires the negotiation of agreements between employers and employees principally on the choice between a one-tier or two-tier system of board structure. While the ECS thereby promotes flexible solutions tailor-made to company requirements, it has failed to achieve full harmonisation of EU company law. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the history, structure, legal basis and likely impact of the ECS, examining its evolution over some 30 years of development and its chances for integrating diverse models of corporate governance across the European Economic Area. The book explores the implications of the ECS for employee participation at various levels in the European company, with country case studies drawn from Greece, Slovenia and the UK. It also analyses certain legal issues, including taxation and the position of companies located in countries without existing systems of employee board-level participation.