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The revised EWC Directive: A snapshot of the future of the European Works Council  

Employment

The revised EWC Directive: A snapshot of the future of the European Works Council

On 28 May 2025, the Council and the European Parliament published a Provisional Agreement to amend the existing Directive on the European Works Council, Directive 2009/38/EC.

Mon 07 Jul 2025

5 min read

A European Works Council (EWC) is an information and consultation body that represents European workers on transnational issues in multinational companies with more than 1,000 employees with operations in at least two EU or EEA countries. EWCs comprise employees’ representatives from each country that is a member of either or both of the European Union and the EEA in which a business has employees. They operate separately from national information and consultation bodies.

On 28 May 2025, the Council and the European Parliament published a Provisional Agreement to amend the existing Directive on the European Works Council (EWC), Directive 2009/38/EC (the Directive). The decision to amend the Directive was originally proposed by the Commission in January 2024 with the aim of addressing shortcomings by introducing measures to make the Directive clearer and more effective.

Some of the key changes agreed under the Provisional Agreement are outlined below.

What’s next?

The European Parliament will need to formally adopt the changes agreed in the Provisional Agreement. Following this, Member States will have two years to transpose changes to the Directive into national law, with the new rules applying one year thereafter.

In the meantime, employers who have agreements in place, as well as previously exempted undertakings, are advised to carefully consider the impact of these changes on their organisation.

We will consider the provisions of the Provisional Agreement in more detail in our second article to follow.

For further information in relation to this topic, please contact Aisling Muldowney, Partner, Triona Sugrue, Senior Knowledge Consultant, Sheila Spokes, Associate or any member of the ALG Employment Law team.  

Date published: 7 July 2025 

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