Speaking earlier today, European Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said that the European Commission wanted to increase levels of employee share ownership across the European Union.
She stated that the executive saw the task as part of a “…broader narrative of sustainable entrepreneurship.”Jourova went on to state that any employee share schemes being operated in the EU should be open to all employees without discrimination, in other words they should be operated in the same way that HMRC “all-employee” share schemes are operated in the UK. A recent study by the European Commission had found that 68 percent of firms in the EU did not offer any form of employee share plan for their staff and this was something that they were keen to address. ifsProShare, the voice of the employee share ownership industry in the UK, which counts the likes of M&S, BT, National Grid and BP as members, welcomed the interest in employee share ownership from European policy makers but stressed that policy making in this area remains the responsibility of national Governments.
Phil Hall, Special Adviser to ifsProShare, said: “The UK is fortunate to have a Government that understands the importance of employee share plans to employees, employers and the economy as a whole which is why we have more than two million employees participating in an employee share scheme in the UK today. We welcome the European Commissions interest in this area and note that many suggestions are for developments that are already in place in the UK and we would probably support proposed voluntary frameworks depending on their content. However, it should be stressed that ultimately such matters remain the responsibility of national Governments.”
Conservative MEP Anthea McIntyre (West Midlands) said the UK enjoyed higher levels of employee share ownership compared to many other EU countries and that the EU should concentrate on creating a more suitable business environment for employers to thrive in, free from regulatory burdens, and then they would be better placed to offer employee share schemes. Ms Jourova did not guarantee any new legislative proposals would appear in the Commission's work programme for 2015 but if not they should appear in the programme for 2016. Reassuringly Jourova did concede that any new proposals would focus on providing a framework to set up voluntary schemes instead of compelling employers to provide employee share schemes.
