Liechtenstein To Get New Company Form

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

17 April 2007

The Government of Liechtenstein has adopted a report and draft bill for consideration by Parliament on the creation of an execution and involvement law for European Cooperative Societies.

Following the introduction in 2005 of the European Company (SE) as the "flagship" of European company forms, this step integrates and implements an additional European legal form, the European Cooperative Society (Societas Cooperativa Europaea, SCE), into national company law, the government said.

The Council Regulation on the Statute of the European Cooperative Society introduces a new legal form, the SCE. This creates the possibility of forming a cooperative recognized throughout the European Economic Area on the basis of Community law. The Council Regulation does not exhaustively regulate the European Cooperative Society, however, but rather refers to domestic law at several points. Moreover, individual Member States are empowered and required to design various provisions themselves, which is why the creation of an SCE execution law to integrate the SCE Council Regulation into Liechtenstein company law has been deemed the most useful solution.

Directive 2003/72/EC, on the involvement of employees, supplements the Council Regulation on the Statute of the European Cooperative Society. It governs both the information and consultation procedures with respect to employee representatives and the participation rights of employees in the supervisory board or board of directors of the SCE. Since such provisions in Liechtenstein are not only largely lacking, but also additional special regulations are necessary with respect to SCEs, the creation of an applicable special law in the form of the SCE involvement law is again the recommended approach. In terms of content, the implementation of the SCE Directive should be kept to the minimum necessary.

As a consequence of its membership in the European Economic Area, Liechtenstein is required to domestically execute Council Regulation (EC) No. 1435/2003 on the Statute for a European Cooperative Society (SCE), and to implement Directive 2003/72/EC supplementing the Statute for a European Cooperative Society with regard to the involvement of employees.

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