International Business Law

⇨ The ‘European Company’

The European Society is officially backed in force October 8, 2004.

There are 4 types of formation:
- The formation by merger: it allows multiple SA to create an SE if at least two of them reside in a Member State
- The establishment by creating a holding company: several SA and / or LLC can be an SE if for at least two of them reside in a Member State or have been at least two years a subsidiary or a branch resident in the Member State
- The constitution as a joint venture: for all companies, whatever their form or other legal persons of private law or public
- The transformation of a company of national law, an SA can be transformed into an SE if it has at least two years had a subsidiary governed by the law of another Member State.

The minimum capital for the creation of the SE is 120 000 euros.

The head of the SE must be in the same location as its real seat.

Regarding the operation, the SE is organized as any society: it is organized in two-tier system (a management board and a supervisory body) or tier system (an administrative body).

In terms of accounting and taxation, the SE must meet the same obligations as any other company (annual accounts, taxation in relation to national legislation)

There are some examples of SE in 2009: BASF, Allianz, MAN.

Despite all these information, we quickly realize that the European company looks somewhat like an empty shell. Indeed, many aspects of this statute are not defined.

Note also that this type of company is not really used, because of this lack of definition described above.