CORPORATIST TENDENCIES IN THE EURO-POLITY - THE EU-DIRECTIVE OF 22-SEPTEMBER-1994, ON EUROPEAN-WORKS-COUNCILS

The central aim of the 1994 European Works Councils directive is to es tablish institutions in transnational enterprises with the explicit pu rpose of improving the rights of the employees to information and cons ultation in general, and to information concerning 'transnational ques tions which significantly affect workers' interests' in particular. Hi storically, the directive is placed within the context of reform deman ds from the social democratic mainstream in international trade unioni sm dating back to the 1960s. Since Commission proposals for such a dir ective had been strongly opposed and successfully defeated by employer interests, especially UNICE, for a long time, the actual adoption of the directive in September 1994 came as a cold shower for these intere sts. The development of the tripartite power relationship between the Commission and the peak organizations of labour and capital at Europea n level in the tug of war up to the final adoption of the directive se ems to indicate the emergence of a peculiar Euro-corporatism.