European Works Council or procedures for informing and consulting employees in Community-scale undertakings

As well as introducing editorial amendments which were aimed at clarifying and specifying the objectives and content of the proposal, the common position of the Council made a number of basic changes to the text, namely: - Member States would have the option not to apply national rules for the transposition of the Directive to personnel from the merchant fleet; - the second threshold for the number of employed workers, the purpose of which was to define the Community-scale undertaking or group of undertakings, was raised from 100 to 150; - Member States would be able to lay down the budget rules which governed the functioning of the special negotiating group and European Works Council, including restricting the financial responsibility to a single expert; - the time limit for negotiations between the special negotiating group and the central management was extended from 2 to 3 years, in order that an agreement might be reached; - Member States would be able to introduce special measures on behalf of the central management of those undertakings and establishments which directly and essentially pursued an ideological objective with regard to information and opinions; - Member States would be able to adopt regulations designed to safeguard the non-disclosure of information relating to disputes being heard before administrative or judicial authorities; - the time limit for the Commission to re-examine the modalities for the application of the Directive was reduced from 7 to 6 years; - the maximum number of members of the limited council group of the European Works Council was reduced from 5 to 3; - Member States would be able to lay down the rules governing the chairmanship of the information and consultation meetings, thereby allowing the Directive to be adapted to all national systems. Finally, the Council adopted almost all of Parliament's amendments which had been accepted by the Commission in its modified proposal. �