EFES FORUM
                                                                                HOW REACH THIS FORUM
                                                                                1. Register yourself on page http://cog.kent.edu/register.html,
                                                                                and check the box "European employee share ownership and participation".
                                                                                2. See presentation of the forum on http://cog.kent.edu/grpefes.html
                                                                                3. See all opinions and comments on http://cog.kent.edu/archives/efes/
                                                                                4. After being registrated, send your opinions to: EFES@cog.kent.edu
                                                                               Your opinions will be automaticaly sent to all participants.

DISCUSSION PAPERS AND OPINIONS .

17.09.2004: Report of the High Level Experts Group for the European Commission (de Foucauld)
09.06.2004: Bertie Ahern, chairing the EU as Irish Prime Minister, answers to EFES call
03.06.2004: Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament answers to EFES call
31.05.2004:

10.05.2004: New community programme for entrepreneurship and enterprise competitiveness 2006-2010.
The European Commission organised a consultation. See here all about this consultation.
Click here for EFES response. In short:
Employee ownership in the new community programme for entrepreneurship and enterprise competitiveness 2006-2010. In 1998, it was said that some 10% of American employees held shares of their enterprise; they are now 23,3%. Some weeks ago, the Australian Government launched a programme to double employee share ownership in Australia, from 5,5% of employees today to 11% in 2009.
Today, performances studies have multiplied and we can now consider with no doubt that when it is practiced in good conditions, employee ownership brings to enterprises a gain of performances estimated at 2% of supplementary annual growth on average. On the European Union scale, this would represent millions of supplementary jobs. In this way the development of employee ownership could be an important factor for the Lisbon Strategy.
Today, we are far from a European awareness and a strong mobilisation. Scepticism or indifference still dominate in many European countries. The contrast is obvious in comparison with the United States, Australia and other parts of the world. A political willingness of the European Union has still to crystallize.
We recommend that Europe gives itself a voluntary objective of industrial policy : reach 10 % of employee ownership in the whole European Union in 2010. In this way, a whole combination of means have to be implemented at the Union level, in the Member States and in the regions. We particularly insist on the followings : 1. The implementation of a community organ (agency ? institute ? committee ?) for the promotion and the development of employee ownership. 2. An adapted legislation must be applied in each country of the European Union. 3. Enterprise transfer and salvation of failing enterprises are situations where employee ownership has proved its worth. Employee buyouts schemes should get particular support.
As a conclusion, the new community programme 2006-2010 for entrepreneurship and enterprise competitiveness can be the excellent occasion to crystallize a political willingness of the European Union for the promotion and development of employee ownership.

19.03.2004: Letter to all European Governments. On the occasion of the forthcoming renewal of the European Commission, EFES calls for a transfer of the competence related to employee ownership and employee financial participation along with the management of the sub-programme on employee financial participation of budget-line B3-4003 to DG Enterprise.

26.06.2003: EFES Response to the Green Paper on Entrepreneurship in Europe (pdf)

05.07.2002: COMMUNICATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION ON FINANCIAL PARTICIPATION OF WORKERS

Finally, we have it ! On July, 5, the European Commission adopted its Communication on Financial Participation of workers and Action Plan. You can find the Communication in English and 10 other languages on:
http://europa.eu.int/cgi-bin/eur-lex/udl.pl?REQUEST=Service-Search&LANGUAGE=en&GUILANGUAGE=en&SERVICE=all&COLLECTION=com&DOCID=502PC0364
English ; Français ; Espa�ol ;

Italiano ;

Deutsch

; Nederlands ; Portuguese ; Dansk ; Greek ; Finish ; Swedish

29.05.2002: DISCUSSION PAPER
CONTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYEE SHARE OWNERSHIP TO THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION

10.05.2002: DISCUSSION PAPER
EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP ASKS FOR ITS PLACE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY

31.10.2001: OPINIONS ON THE NEXT COMMUNICATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
UNICE
ETUC (in English); ETUC (in German)

23.10.2001: EFES OPINION
ON THE NEXT COMMUNICATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

August 2001: CONSULTATION BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
The working document of the Commission Staff is on the web:
- in English: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/news/2001/aug/sec_2001_1308_en.pdf
- in French: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/news/2001/aug/sec_2001_1308_fr.pdf
- in Deutsch: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/news/2001/aug/sec_2001_1308_de.pdf

ORIGIN OF THIS FORUM

Let's first remember: In 1999 we launched a call to put employee share ownership on the European political agenda. Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt promised to put the point on the table during the Lisbon Summit, and he did.
The promotion of employee financial participation was therefore on the European Social Agenda and the European Commission had to publish a communication and an action plan. On August 1, 2001, the European Commission launched a consultation on financial participation in the European Union. Through our forum, we invited all interested actors to take part and send their comments. Finally, the Commission published its communication on July 5, 2002.

For information and contact
EFES - EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF EMPLOYEE SHARE OWNERSHIP
FEAS - FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DE L'ACTIONNARIAT SALARIE
Avenue Voltaire 135, B-1030 Brussels
Tel/fax: +32 (0)2 242 64 30
E-mail: efes@efesonline.org
Web site: www.efesonline.org
EFES' objective is to act as the umbrella organization of employee owners, companies and all persons, trade unions, experts, researchers, institutions looking to promote employee ownership and participation in Europe.