European works councils: a new check-up of the directive thirty years after its adoption

Journal title GIORNALE DI DIRITTO DEL LAVORO E DI RELAZIONI INDUSTRIALI
Author/s Salvo Leonardi
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2026/191
Language Italian Pages 26 P. 361-386 File size 233 KB
DOI 10.3280/GDL2026-191002
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Over three decades, the experience of European Works Councils (EWCs) has had time and opportunity to reveal both its potential and its criticisms. Their establishment and diffusion still represent one of the few tangible and operational achievements of supranational industrial relations. Nevertheless, numerous empirical surveys have highlighted a variety of quantitative and qualitative shortcomings, deriving from the unsatisfactory regulatory framework and from the persistent difficulty of harmonizing national practices of industrial relations within a more converging and incisive spirit of international solidarity. Against this background, at the end of 2025 a new directive was approved, amending the previous one on several crucial points. This article aims to provide an assessment of the overall experience of EWCs through an updated international review of the relevant literature and empirical research that has monitored and analyzed their development, culminating in a final focus on the new directive and on the perspectives, it may open for the future.

Keywords: European Works Councils (EWCs); Industrial relations; Transnational company agreements.

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Salvo Leonardi, Comitati aziendali europei: un nuovo tagliando alla direttiva a trent’anni dalla istituzione in "GIORNALE DI DIRITTO DEL LAVORO E DI RELAZIONI INDUSTRIALI " 191/2026, pp 361-386, DOI: 10.3280/GDL2026-191002