EU Inc, otherwise known as the 28th regime, has made a big splash in Brussels recently. In March of this year, the European Commission proposed what it terms a ‘single set of corporate rules across the EU’ that companies – with a particular focus on startups – could opt into rather than having to navigate the myriad of national legal regimes on the continent. It is a flagship policy of the Commission's agenda for a more competitive European economy.  

The Commission has claimed that the proposed Regulation includes strong safeguards against abuse, but the labour movement has strongly criticised some of the proposal's elements that present a risk to hard-won labour rights in individual Member States and the threat it poses to worker representation in corporate governance. 

In this discussion, Marcus Meyer-Erdmann and Sara Lafuente, senior researchers at the ETUI specialising in European industrial relations and worker participation, explain what's really at stake here.  

To dive deeper into the ETUI's ongoing analysis of the 28th regime project, take a look at these two recent policy briefs:  

 Innovation or evasion? How the 28th Regime ‘EU Inc.’ undermines collective rights and shifts corporate risk on to workers | etui 

 How a 28th company law regime jeopardises workers’ rights | etui