, and transnational bargaining. What are the major changes? What lessons can we learn from the different contributions?
Udo Rehfelt. I think it would be useful to remind that, as this special issue points out, these three forms of employee participation have a common ideational and historical link – the European Commission’s primary objective, dating back to 1970, as regards the status of the European company. This status already provided for 3 representation (or participation) channels: 1) through European works councils, and it was the first time this word appeared in the Commission’s documents; 2) through board participation and; 3) through European company collective agreements. Today, the first two aspects are governed by Community regulations. Only transnational agreements have no legal framework.
As regards observations, one of the contributions quotes a survey among EWC members based on a questionnaire sent by the trade unions.