REVIEW OF THE LEGAL ISSUES OF EMPLOYEE SHARE OWNERSHIP IN EU

The paper examines legal issues concerning employee share ownership in the European Union and the latest achievements in the field by European Commission. The analyse of the legislative proposals set in EU Commission: Promotion of Employee Ownership and Participation and its' alleged impact on companies in EU member states is based on primary and secondary sources. European Commission is still not offering common legaldefinition of employee share ownership and employee financial participation across EU member states. The author argues that different national laws in EU member states regulating employee financial participation is an important obstacle for international companies to implement employee share ownership schemes in cross-board situations. The "Common European Regime" proposed by European Commission would offer employers and employees a choice between two alternative employee financial participation regimes one originating in national legislation, the other in European legislation. That could be considered to be a great step towards solution of cross-border situations when international companies are obliged to apply different national laws when implementing employee share ownership schemes, thus causing inequality between employees from different EU member states. This paper analyses problems with implementation process of employee share ownership schemes in cross-board situations and offeres most suitable way to implement common EU wide regime on employee share ownership.