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The ECJ, Volkswagen and European Corporate Law: Reshaping the European Varieties of Capitalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

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On its website “The EU Single Market – Fewer barriers, more opportunities”, the European Commission lists the judgments by the European Court of Justice [ECJ] dealing with the free movement of capital under Art 56 EC Treaty (ex 73b). The latest update of this list is the Court's Volkswagen decision of 23 October 2007 (Case C-112/2005), which the Commission had launched against the Federal Republic of Germany on 4 March 2005. This suit, brought under Art. 226 EC Treaty, had been long coming. That the Volkswagen statute, which effectively gave the Federal government and the Land (federal state) of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) a veto against majority acquisition while only holding a fifth of all shares, would come into the Commission's purview, could hardly surprise, given the Commission's activity with regard to such ‘golden share’ provisions under Portuguese, French, Belgian and English company laws. The most recent decision of the ECJ in the case of Volkswagen is of interest in more than one respect. Not only does it constitute a continuation and further accentuation of a line of argument that the Court has been unfolding over past few years with regard to the Member State provisions in conflict with the EC's guarantee of the free movement of capital as laid down in Art. 56 EC.

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Copyright © 2007 by German Law Journal GbR 

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112 Arbeitsgericht Stuttgart, Kammer Ludwigsburg, 12 BVGa 4/07 of 24 October 2007, available at: http://www.arbg-stuttgart.de/servlet/PB/show/1213597/12-BVGa-4-07.pdf.Google Scholar

113 The regime has been established by the following legislative acts: Council Regulation (EC) No. 2157/2001 of 8 October 2001 on the Statute for a European company (SE); Council Directive 2001/86/EC of 8 October 2001 supplementing the Statute for a European company with regard to the involvement of employees; both available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm; The Regulation (EC) No. 2157/2001 is accompanied by a German implementation law called: Gesetz zur Ausführung der Verordnung (EG) Nr. 2157/2001 des Rates vom 8. Oktober 2001 über das Statut der Europäischen Gesellschaft (SE) (SE-Ausführungsgesetz – SEAG) of 22 December 2004, BGBl. I, 3675; whereas the Directive 2001/86 EC has been transformed into German law by Gesetz über die Beteiligung der Arbeitnehmer in einer Europäischen Gesellschaft (SE-Beteiligungsgesetz – SEBG) of 22 December 2004, BGBl. I, 3675.Google Scholar

114 See Krause, Rüdiger, Die Mitbestimmung der Arbeitnehmer in der Europäischen Gesellschaft, BetriebsBerater 1221 (2005), at 1222, who describes the negotiations before the conclusion of the covenenat as “bargaining in the shadows of law”.Google Scholar

115 See, supra, note 114, at 1226; also, supra, note 112, II. 2. e) bb).Google Scholar

116 Section 21 SE-Beteiligungsgesetz states that this covenant between the employer and a delegation of employees may determine how the supervisory board and the workers council are equipped.Google Scholar

117 Spiegel Online, 3 November 2007: Machtkampf: Porsche verschiebt VW-Aktienkauf [Power struggle: Porsche delays share acquisition of Volkswagen], available at: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,515200,00.html (last visited 7 November 2007)Google Scholar

118 Porsche worker would then have 30-times more influence as the vote of a Volkswagen worker, see Lange, Kai, Angriff aufs Gewerkschaftsparadies in: Spiegel-Online, 24 October 2007, available at: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,513024,00.html; Ansgar Siemens, Wenn sie zanken Seit’ and Seit', Süddeutsche.de, 24 October 2007, available at: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/artikel/786/139495/.Google Scholar

119 Arbeitsgericht Stuttgart, decision of 24 October 2007, supra, note 112, at 10; see also the statement by IG-Metall (Germany's largest singular trade union) Peters, Jürgen, Angerichtetes Desaster, an interview by Janko Tietz in: Der Spiegel,29 October 2007, at 108.Google Scholar

120 Arbeitsgericht Stuttgart, Kammer Ludwigsburg, 12 BVGa 4/07 of 24 October 2007, available at: http://www.arbg-stuttgart.de/servlet/PB/show/1213597/12-BVGa-4-07.pdf, at 10Google Scholar

121 Supra, note 10.Google Scholar