An important reflection, also in terms of international merger, has been the outcome from the Presentation of the case Banco Santander/Banco Popular, where the transferees from Banco Popular were strongly protected through a Social Plan negotiated by the Spanish unions in 2017.

Actually neither the 2001/23 nor the 98/599 Directives provide for such a Social Plan. From this point of view our 4 points Document has to be read also in order to fill a possible gap in these Directives too, beyond the 2009/38.

THE ABOVE MENTIONED RESULTS CONCERNING OUR ORIGINAL GOALS II. and III, already mentioned talking about the outcomes  from SOFIA, have strongly and deeply increased the awareness of all our participants namely the EWC reps ones, their ability to manage the Agreements ruling their own EWC and to distinguish between the limits and potentials of such Agreements on the one hand, and the current + past practices and relationship with the Management in their own EWC, so that it has become definitely clear what the distance (and sometimes the contradiction) is between the Agreement quality and those practices on the other hand.

I mean that on the one hand we got a confirmation about our original statement of practices undermining and misusing the rights provided for by the Agreement and by the Directive, but on the other hand sometimes we found that practices were/are good in spite of the poor quality of the Agreement, often negotiated under the infamous article 13 of the 94/45 Directive. The latter situation is just due to the a union friendly or open minded contact person from the Management of that transnational group who was/is in charge

of the EWC, therefore we are talking about a necessarily rather temporary than steady situation. The most balanced situation is probably the one of Unicredit Group and of Crédit Agricole EWCs, where both the concerned Agreements and the good practices of information and consultation show a correct implementation of the Agreement itself and an alive/proactive attitude by both the social partners.

Having analysed all what reported here above has been a clear incentive to renegotiate obsolete EWC Agreements in those groups where they were still made under the infamous article 13 has definitely come from our Project, even if the renegotiation of a EWC Agreement is always an issue very much depending not only on the employer’s willingness but also on the different members/nations/unions which are represented in the concerned EWC.

HOWEVER, the so called Voluntary Agreement ex article 13 of the 94/45 Directive can be modified under the provision of the 2009/38 one by using 2 arguments:

1. 1)the company for which that Voluntary Agreement was signed no longer existsintermsofgeographicalareaandintermsoftransnationalgroup,thisis almost always thecase
2. 2)being the definition and procedure of information and consultation the real coreofthecurrentDirective,suchdefinitionatleastcanbeincorporatedinthe old Voluntary Agreement even if formally it is notmodified.