From the Brussels office

From Ltd to SPE?

On 10 March the European Parliament adopted a resolution to amend the proposed regulation on the Statute for a European Private Company. This is a further step in the creation of an EU-wide private company form, which will be known as a Societas Privata Europaea or SPE. In terms of establishing an SPE, Parliament’s amendments include a requirement to demonstrate a cross-border business component, which might be shown retrospectively. Other amendments attempt to ensure employee participation rights. A minimum capital requirement of one euro is maintained, provided the articles of association require the management body to sign a solvency certificate. If there is no such requirement, the minimum capital required would be 8,000 euro. The Parliament’s amendments will now be considered by the Commission and the Council, which are not bound to follow them. The proposal must be adopted unanimously by member states, which failed to reach a political agreement in December 2008, and there has been little progress in discussions since.

Clearer emission rules

The European Parliament voted on 10 March to reduce industrial emissions in the EU while attempting to introduce more flexibility into the system of granting permits to businesses, such as combustion or waste-incineration plants. This recast of a number of existing directives on emissions seeks to clarify existing rules and reduce the administrative burden of compliance. MEPs voted, however, in favour of stricter emission limit values for certain types of combustion plant and pollutants, and for certain minimum limit values to be set. Member states are expected to reach a political agreement on the proposal in June following a ministerial discussion on 2 March. There was disagreement at that meeting, however, over suggestions that existing large combustion plants should comply with emissions limits by 2016 and that the range of activities covered by minimum requirements should be extended. 

No breakthrough on working time

The revision of the Directive on Working Time is ongoing, with representatives from the Parliament and the Council having met for the first time on 17 March for conciliation talks, which must come to an end in six weeks. The issue of whether to maintain the opt-out from the 48-hour weekly work limit remains contentious, as does whether inactive on-call time should be included within the definition of working time. The next conciliation meeting is scheduled to take place on 1 April. If both parties reach agreement, it is expected that the Parliament will vote on the agreement early in May, just before it enters recess for the European elections in June. If no agreement is reached within the six-week period, the proposal will fall and the Commission will have to reconsider its options, including the possibility that a fresh legislative proposal will be introduced.