Co-determination is the German practice of employee representation on corporate supervisory boards, codified in the Mitbestimmungsgesetz (1976) and Drittelbeteiligungsgesetz (2004). It also exists in attenuated forms in Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Luxembourg. It is constitutionally significant in Germany.
The EU Inc. proposal must coexist with these national regimes without overriding them. Berlin has been clear that an EU corporate form which lets German employers escape co-determination would be politically unacceptable, and several other member states share variations of that concern.
The Council general approach of March 2026 included safeguards that preserve national co-determination thresholds when a company has more than 500 employees in a given member state. The shape of those safeguards, and whether they survive trilogue, is the live political question. This page tracks each country's stated position on co-determination, the legal threshold that applies domestically, and any new signals from labor ministries or trade unions.