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Here is www.efesonline.orgSee also www.efes-ceeo.net
Last update: 03.06.2004

With the support of the European Commission – Employment & Social Affairs
Avec le soutien de la Commission Européenne - Emploi & Affaires Sociales

Welcome, this is the EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF EMPLOYEE SHARE OWNERSHIP (EFES).
Bienvenue sur le site de la FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DE L’ACTIONNARIAT SALARIE (FEAS).

This site is basically written in English but for detailed info is multilingual; do you want to read in:
Faites votre choix de langue: FRANCAIS / OTHER LANGUAGES ( 24 LANGUAGES ! )

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What's new on this site since your last visit? Click here on : WHAT'S NEW

REAL CASES: EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP, WHAT IT IS, REALLY

03.06.2004: Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament answers to EFES call

JUNE 2004: EFES CALL FOR THE NEXT RENEWAL OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

In 1998, when the European Federation of Employee Share Ownership was< set up, it was said that some 10% of American employees held shares of their enterprise; they are now 23,3%. Some weeks ago, the Australian Government launched a programme to double employee share ownership in Australia, from 5,5% of employees today to 11% in 2009.
Today, performances studies have multiplied and we can now consider with no doubt that when it is practiced in good conditions, employee ownership brings to enterprises a gain of performances estimated at 2% of additional annual growth on average. On the European Union scale, this would represent millions of additional jobs. In this way the development of employee ownership could be an important factor for the Lisbon Strategy.
Today, we are far from a European awareness and a strong mobilisation. Scepticism or indifference still dominate in many European countries. The contrast is obvious in comparison with the United States, Australia and other parts of the world. A political willingness of the European Union has still to crystallize.
We recommend that Europe gives itself a voluntary objective of industrial policy : reach 10 % of employee ownership in the whole European Union in 2010. In this way, a whole combination of means have to be implemented at the Union level, in the Member States and in the regions.
We particularly insist on the followings :
1. The implementation of a community organ (agency ? institute ? committee ?) for the promotion and the development of employee ownership. In this way, we applaud the proposal of the European Commission Experts Group, chaired by Jean-Baptiste de Foucault, to install a European Committee for Financial Participation of Workers.
2. An adapted legislation must be applied in each country of the European Union. In this way too, we applaud the proposals of the Experts Group of the Commission chaired by Jean-Baptiste de Foucault.
3. Enterprise transfer and salvation of failing enterprises are situations where employee ownership has proved its worth. Employee buyouts schemes should get particular support. These formulas are not only to be supported for themselves but also because they are favourable to the diffusion and promotion of employee ownership, in all enterprises of the Union's countries.

Click here for the full EFES response to the consultation for the new community programme for enterprepreneurship 2006-2010

• EFES FORUM:
click here to see all EFES contributions and discussions about EU policies regarding employee ownership and financial participation of workers

MAIN NEW RECENT POINTS IN THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS:

19.03.2004: Letter to all European Governments. On the occasion of the forthcoming renewal of the European Commission, EFES calls for a transfer of the competence related to employee ownership and employee financial participation along with the management of the sub-programme on employee financial participation of budget-line B3-4003 to DG Enterprise.

• THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE:
On February 26, 2003, the Committee, which represents the European social partners, adopted its opinion on Employee Financial Participation. This very important document is here available in 11 languages : DA / DE / EL / EN / ES / FI / FR / IT / NL / PT / SV

• THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT:
In December 2002, the European Parliament published a new major report:
Employee Participation in Profit and Ownership: A Review of the Issues and Evidence, by Virginie Pérotin and Andrew Robinson. It is here available in EN / FR / DE
On March 19, 2003, the Commission for Employment and Social Affairs will discuss its project report; it is here available in: DA / DE / EL / EN / ES / FI / FR / IT / NL / PT / SV
Finally, on June 5, 2003, the Parliament adopted its new Resolution on employee financial participation; it is here available in: DA / DE / EL / EN / ES / FI / FR / IT / NL / PT / SV

• EFES ACTIVITIES:
Report of the meeting: BILBAO MONDRAGON 2002
FOURTH EUROPEAN MEETING OF EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP, November 21-23, 2002
Pictures of the meeting

• THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION:
On July 5, 2002, the European Commission finally adopted its Communication on Financial Participation of workers and Action Plan. You can find the Communication in English and 10 other languages, clicking on: EN / FR / ES / IT / DE / NL / PT / DA / EL / FI / SV
Furthermore in 2003, the Commission adopted several communications on entrepreneurship, on industrial policy and on innovation, involving employee ownership: see details on page "employee entrepreneurship"

• THE PRESIDENCY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION:
THE BELGIAN PRESIDENCY SUPPORTS EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP AND PARTICIPATION
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN BRUSSELS ON NOVEMBER 23, 2001
REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE
THE PICTURES OF THE CONFERENCE (SERIES 1)
(SERIES 2)
(SERIES 3)

DECLARATION OF THE CONFERENCE

The Belgian Presidency of the European Union, represented within the conference by Minister of Finance Didier Reynders, expressed his willingness to go ahead in European PEPPER policies. Minister Reynders gave his support to the opinion expressed by the European Federation of Employee Share Ownership (EFES) on the next Communication of the European Commission 1.
The governments of eleven European States 2 joined him to ask the European Commission : 
- to promote employee share ownership and participation, in preference to other forms of financial participation of workers; 
- to set up a permanent working party composed of representatives of both sides of industry, employee owners organizations, members of the European Parliament, experts of the Commission and representatives of the Member States;
-  to implement a European programme with adequate funding; 
- to create a European institute for employee share ownership and participation, to promote exchanges of information and best practices; 
- to develop training programmes about employee share ownership and participation;
- to adopt common principles and definitions (inter alia: the voluntary character of employee share ownership, and its accessibility to all employees and all types of firms, including SMEs); 
- to remove the transnational obstacles (tax, financial, social and cultural). 
The European Commission, represented by Mr Rosendo Gonzales-Dorrego, Director in the Directorate-General Employment and Social Affairs, pointed out the initiatives taken in the past, in particular PEPPER Reports and the consultation intended to prepare the next Communication of the Commission.  The consultation brought a hundred reactions, among which the opinion of EFES and that of the European social partners.  It referred to the difficulties within the Commission, due to the fact that many Directorate-Generals are interested in the initiatives related to employee share ownership (DG Employment & Social Affairs, DG Enterprises, DG Internal Market, etc).
The organizations of workers and the organizations of employers were represented by ETUC – the European Trade Unions Confederation 3 and by UNICE – Union of Industrials and Employer’s Confederations of Europe 4. Both supported the development of employee share ownership while insisting on their own emphases:  ETUC insists on the aspects of participation of the workers in general and in decision-making, and on the distribution of income and wealth; UNICE stresses the voluntary aspect of employee share ownership, and on its positive impact on motivation and productivity. 
This is why the conference requires the lifting of tax and social security obstacles from the Member States and the Council of Ministers of the EU.
Then, a series of major European firms of various sizes, countries and branches of industry testified to their experiences and their practices in employee ownership and participation 5. They also stressed the huge difficulties, for the firms, in implementing transnational employee share ownership plans. 
Eventually, the companies' representatives agreed on the importance of different collective ownership and ownership representation forms, besides the individual forms, and they supported the idea of creating a legislative framework for these collective forms (association, trust, stiftung, co-operatives, etc). 

---

1  EFES opinion is available on www.efesonline.org

2  Belgium, France, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Czech Republic.

3  The ETUC has in its membership 74 National Trade Union Confederations from a total of 34 European countries, as well as 11 European industry federations, making a total of 60 million members.

4  UNICE is the voice of business in Europe, having as members the 33 principal business federations from 27 European countries, plus 6 federations as observers.

5  Suez (170.000 employees), Aventis (100.000 employees), Mondragon (55.000 employees), Dexia (15.000 employees), Tullis Russel (1.000 employees), Sociedades Anonymas Laborales (average size : 5 employees).

About this web site: We believe that the current priority is to organise the international exchange of information on employee ownership and participation by means of creating a large Internet portal offering access to information databases and links with corresponding sites in various European countries and throughout the world, as well as with all those persons concerned.

 

For more information, contact :
Marc Mathieu
Secretary General
EFES - EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF EMPLOYEE SHAREOWNERSHIP
FEAS - FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DE L'ACTIONNARIAT SALARIE
Avenue Voltaire 135, B-1030 Brussels
Tel/fax: +32(0)2 242 64 30
marcmathieu@marcmathieu.be