THE ECJ’S ERZBERGER RULING: A DOOR WIDELY OPENED TO NATIONAL MODELS OF EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION?

In the recent decision of the Erzberger case C-566/15, the Court of Justice of the European Union had to address the issue of whether the national rules on employee participation in company management (so-called co-determination) are in line with EU law, in particular whether they do not restrict the free movement of workers within the EU internal market. Although in the present case the judges did not find the existence of restrictions, in their brief ruling they did not give answers to all the questions related to this case and the co-determination in multinational business groups. The article attempts to show for which cases of co-determination we already have clear answers in the current EU law and for which we do not. Overall, however, the analysis shows that the EU Court of Justice decision was pragmatic and therefore wise.