Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-05-13-Speech-2-266"
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"en.20030513.12.2-266"2
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".
Mr President, honourable Members, I would like to start by extending the Commission’s thanks to the rapporteurs of both the leading Committees for the outstanding work they have done, both on the regulation on European Cooperative Societies and on the related directive on the involvement of employees.
There are, in the European Union, at least 130 000 cooperative societies, which have 2.3 million employees and well in excess of 80 million members. The regulations will put in the hands of these cooperative societies an instrument for cross-border transactions right across the internal market similar to that already enacted for public limited companies in the form of the Statute for a European Limited Company.
Associations of cooperative societies in Europe have been demanding this sort of statute for some years now, and the text of the regulation now before you has met with their approval. The Statute will also make it possible to form cross-border syndicates on the basis of cooperative society structures, enabling enterprises of this type to build up joint activities, become more competitive, and enter more diverse markets. Parliament expressed its approval for the Statute for a European Cooperative Society at first reading, which was on 20 January 1993. This initial position taken by Parliament resulted in numerous improvements to the text of the Commission proposal as later amended, which Parliament approved on 2 December 1993, reconfirming that approval on 27 October 1999.
Although the regulation is not perfect, it reflects a broad consensus on what rules should apply to this new form of cooperative enterprise. At Council level, it met with the Member States’ unanimous approval, something that constitutes considerable progress in view of the individual Member States’ divergent regulations on cooperative societies. From the outset, the Commission has had the objective of creating an instrument that would be, on the one hand, flexible and modern, whilst, on the other, taking into account the particular characteristics of cooperative societies and the principles underlying them. We are glad that this balance is maintained in the Regulation in its present form.
Article 79 offers the possibility of removing any inadequacies brought to light by the experience of the first five years of implementation, and so the Commission will monitor the application of the Statute with a view to the possible revision of the Regulation. The Members of this Parliament regard as extremely dubious the Council’s unilateral and unanimous decision to change the legal basis in such a way as to deprive Parliament of its right of codecision, and it is understandable that they should do so. The Commission took Article 95 as the legal basis for its proposal on the grounds that this article has the completion of the internal market as its objective. We continue to believe that Article 95 provides the right legal basis.
With almost no exceptions, the amendments proposed for a second time have to do with the protection of the employees’ interests. The Commission takes the view that the directive must fully protect their rights, and that it must be complied with when a European Cooperative Society is set up. The directive is the right place for this rule, and so we cannot support the proposed amendments.
Let me now turn to the directive on the involvement of employees, which complements the Regulation and represents a very comprehensive piece of legislation intended to guarantee in an appropriate way employees’ rights to information, consultation and co-determination. In its essentials, the text is based on the corresponding directive on the European Limited Company, adopted one and a half years ago, and the Commission believes that it merits your support. Parliament now wishes to make a number of amendments to it, many of which are undoubted improvements. Having examined in detail all the amendments proposed by Parliament, the Commission is prepared to agree, either fully or in part, to half of them and to support these in the Council. Amendments Nos 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 19 and 22 can be accepted as they stand.
The Commission is also in agreement with a number of other amendments, which, however, still require certain minor changes of formulation in order to take into account the concerns of certain Member States. The amendments in question are Nos 4, 14, 17, 20 and 21.
Leaving to one side the debate on the legal basis, we believe that the Council, too, is open to most of these amendments. We hope that this means that both the Regulation and the directive can be adopted by the Council in June, so that there will be a legal framework conducive to those European Cooperative Societies that want to extend their activities across frontiers, with, at the same time, their employees being guaranteed appropriate protection of their interests."@en1
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