Restructuring and the European Works Council

This paper tries to define the role of the European Works Council in transnational firms' restructurings in the EU. The European Works Council has a weak position during the crisis but in favourable conditions can have a new role in different directions (transnational informations, action with politics and EU institutions). It acquires slowly a more important role as collective actors inside a new specific collective bargaining or as complete actor or as "facilitator," with European and international trade unions (IFA - International Framework Agreements). Then, a new architecture for collective bargaining is emerging in the field of restructurings in Europe