The Revised EWC Directive (EU Directive 2025/2450) published

On 11 December 2025, EU Directive 2025/2450 of 26 November 2025 ‘amending Directive 2009/38/EC as regards the establishment and operation of European Works Councils and the effective enforcement of transnational information and consultation rights’ (‘the Revised Directive’) was published in the Official Journal[1].

According to its terms, the Revised Directive will enter into force on 31 December 2025.   Member states have exactly two years to transpose the Revised Directive into national law, by 1 January 2028.  Generally, however, the provisions of the Revised Directive shall only become applicable from 2 January 2029 onwards, with certain exceptions (see below).

In terms of timing and deadlines, the direct impact of the Revised Directive on EWCs varies considerably in various situations, i.e. (i) for existing EWCs established and operating under either the original Directive 94/45 or the so-called recast Directive 2009/38, (ii) for the so-called ‘legacy agreements’, predating the first Directive 94/45, and (iii) for newly still to be established EWCs.

For the first category, the process to negotiate the required amendments to existing EWC agreements as prescribed by the Revised Directive can be initiated from 2 January 2028 onwards by central management itself, by the existing EWC or by a workers’ request (submitted on behalf of at least 100 workers active in undertakings in at least two member states).  The procedure for such negotiations is the one set out in the existing EWC agreement but, failing such provisions, it requires the set-up of a special negotiating body. The deadline for completing such procedure and adapting the existing EWC agreement to the Revised Directive is two years from the date of the request or initiation of the negotiations. Thereafter, the subsidiary requirements shall apply.

For the second category, being the legacy pre-Directive agreements (for ‘formerly exempted undertakings’), negotiations can be initiated at any time (from 2 January 2029 onwards) by central management or following a request from workers. These negotiations must be concluded within two years from the date of the request, failing which the subsidiary requirements come into play.  During the negotiations, the terms of the existing agreements continue to apply.

For the third category, the existing timeline to complete the negotiations for the set-up of an EWC and for conclusion of an EWC agreement remains in force under the Revised Directive, i.e. generally 3 years from the date of the workers’ request.   Pending negotiations should, therefore in principle, still apply and make use of Directive 2009/38 (prior to any transposition of the Revised Directive), but it is expected that negotiating parties may well be influenced by the new or amended provisions of the Revised Directive.    

In previous Newsletters, we summarised the substantive impact of the Revised Directive on EWCs and transnational information and consultation rights within the EU/EEA, in comparison with the provisions of Directive 2009/38 (see ‘Political agreement reached over the Revised EWC Directive’, Newsletter, 23 May 2025; ‘The revised EWC Directive: the story of a shifted Overton window?’, Newsletter, 10 June 2025). In a follow-up Newsletter, to be published shortly, we shall examine these substantive changes in more detail.