L 294/22 Official Journal of the European Communities 10.11.2001 COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2001/86/EC of 8 October 2001 supplementing the Statute for a European company with regard to the involvement of employees THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com- munity, and in particular Article 308 thereof, Having regard to the amended proposal from the Com- mission (1), Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (3), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (3), Whereas: 1 ( ( ( ( 2 3 ) ) ) ) In order to attain the objectives of the Treaty, Council Regulation (EC) No 2157/2001 (%) establishes a Statute for a European company (SE). That Regulation aims at creating a uniform legal frame- work within which companies from different Member States should be able to plan and carry out the re- organisation of their business on a Community scale. In order to promote the social objectives of the Com- munity, special provisions have to be set, notably in the field of employee involvement, aimed at ensuring that the establishment of an SE does not entail the disappear- ance or reduction of practices of employee involvement existing within the companies participating in the estab- lishment of an SE. This objective should be pursued through the establishment of a set of rules in this field, supplementing the provisions of the Regulation. Since the objectives of the proposed action, as outlined above, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, in that the object is to establish a set of rules on employee involvement applicable to the SE, and can therefore, by reason of the scale and impact of the proposed action, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance 1) O] C138,29.5.1991, p. 8. 0] C 342, 20.12.1993, p. 15. 0] C 124, 21.5.1990, p. 34. 4 See page 1 of this Official Journal. (10) with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve these objectives. The great diversity of rules and practices existing in the Member States as regards the manner in which employees’ representatives are involved in decision- making within companies makes it inadvisable to set up a single European model of employee involvement applicable to the SE. Information and consultation procedures at trans- national level should nevertheless be ensured in all cases of creation of an SE. If and when participation rights exist within one or more companies establishing an SE, they should be preserved through their transfer to the SE, once estab- lished, unless the parties decide otherwise. The concrete procedures of employee transnational information and consultation, as well as, if applicable, participation, to apply to each SE should be defined primarily by means of an agreement between the parties concerned or, in the absence thereof, through the application of a set of subsidiary rules. Member States should still have the option of not applying the standard rules relating to participation in the case of a merger, given the diversity of national systems for employee involvement. Existing systems and practices of participation where appropriate at the level of participating companies must in that case be maintained by adapting registration rules. The voting rules within the special body representing the employees for negotiation purposes, in particular when concluding agreements providing for a level of participation lower than the one existing within one or more of the participating companies, should be proportionate to the risk of disappearance or reduction of existing systems and practices of participation. That