A societas Europaea is a public company registered in accordance with the corporate law of the European Union (EU), introduced in 2004 with the Council Regulation on the Statute for a European Company. Such a company may more easily transfer to or merge with companies in other member states.
Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, literally 'company with limited liability', is a type of legal entity in German-speaking countries. It is equivalent to a société à responsabilité limitée (Sàrl) in the French-speaking part of Switzerland and to a Società a Garanzia Limitata (Sagl) in the Italian-speaking part.
The Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions, procedure number 2002/0047 (COD) was a proposal for a European Union (EU) directive aiming to harmonise national patent laws and practices concerning the granting of patents for computer-implemented inventions, provided they meet certain criteria. The European Patent Office describes a computer-implemented invention (CII) as "one which involves the use of a computer, computer network or other programmable apparatus, where one or more features are realised wholly or partly by means of a computer program".
The European Cooperative Society is, in corporate law, a European cooperative type of company, established in 2006 and related to the Societas Europaea (SE). They may be established and may operate throughout the European Economic Area. The legal form was created to remove the need for cooperatives to establish a subsidiary in each member state of the European Union in which they operate, and to allow them to move their registered office and headquarters freely from one member state to another, keeping their legal identity and without having to register or wind up any legal persons. No matter where they are established, SCEs are governed by a single EEA-wide set of rules and principles which are supplemented by the laws on co-operatives in each member state, and other areas of law.
A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include the LLC in the United States, private company limited by shares in the United Kingdom, GmbH in Germany and Austria, Besloten vennootschap (BV) in The Netherlands and Belgium, société à responsabilité limitée (SARL) in France, and sociedad de responsabilidad limitada (SRL) in the Spanish-speaking world. The benefit of having a private limited company is that there is limited liability.
Viviane Adélaïde Reding is a Luxembourgish politician and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Luxembourg. She is a member of the Christian Social People's Party, part of the European People's Party. She previously served as European Commissioner for Education and Culture from 1999 to 2004, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media from 2004 to 2010 and European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship from 2010 to 2014.
The agencies of the European Union are bodies of the European Union and Euratom established as juridical persons through secondary EU legislation and tasked with a specific narrow field of work.
The institutions of the European Union are the seven principal decision-making bodies of the European Union and Euratom governed under the Treaties of the European Union and European Union law. They are, as listed in Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union:
The political structure of the European Union (EU) is similar to a confederation, where many policy areas are federalised into common institutions capable of making law; the competences to control foreign policy, defence policy, or the majority of direct taxation policies are mostly reserved for the twenty-seven state governments. These areas are primarily under the control of the EU's member states although a certain amount of structured co-operation and coordination takes place in these areas. For the EU to take substantial actions in these areas, all Member States must give their consent. Union laws that override State laws are more numerous than in historical confederations; however, the EU is legally restricted from making law outside its remit or where it is no more appropriate to do so at a state or local level (subsidiarity) when acting outside its exclusive competences. The principle of subsidiarity does not apply to areas of exclusive competence.
A limited partnership (LP) is a type of partnership with general partners who have a right to manage the business and limited partners who have no right to manage the business but have only limited liability for its debts. Limited partnerships are distinct from limited liability partnerships, in which all partners have limited liability.
The European Union adopts legislation through a variety of legislative procedures. The procedure used for a given legislative proposal depends on the policy area in question. Most legislation needs to be proposed by the European Commission and approved by the Council of the European Union and European Parliament to become law.
Government procurement or public procurement is undertaken by the public authorities of the European Union (EU) and its member states in order to award contracts for public works and for the purchase of goods and services in accordance with principles derived from the Treaties of the European Union. Such procurement represents 13.6% of EU GDP as of March 2023, and has been the subject of increasing European regulation since the 1970s because of its importance to the European single market.
European organisational law is a part of European Union law, which concerns the formation, operation and insolvency of public bodies, partnerships, corporations and foundations in the entire European Union. There is no substantive European company law as such, although a host of minimum standards are applicable to companies throughout the European Union. All member states continue to operate separate companies acts, which are amended from time to time to comply with EU Directives and Regulations. There is, however, also the option of businesses to incorporate as a Societas Europaea (SE), which allows a company to operate across all member states.
Axel Voss is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2009 and became coordinator of the European People's Party group in the Committee on Legal Affairs in 2017. His parliamentary work focuses on digital and legal topics.
European company law is the part of European Union law which concerns the formation, operation and insolvency of companies in the European Union. The EU creates minimum standards for companies throughout the EU, and has its own corporate forms. All member states continue to operate separate companies acts, which are amended from time to time to comply with EU Directives and Regulations. There is, however, also the option of businesses to incorporate as a Societas Europaea (SE), which allows a company to operate across all member states.
A societas unius personae was a legal form for a single-member private limited liability company proposed by the European Commission. However, the Commission withdrew the proposal in 2018 due to opposition within the European Parliament.
The ePrivacy Regulation (ePR) is a proposal for the regulation of various privacy-related topics, mostly in relation to electronic communications within the European Union. Its full name is "Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the respect for private life and the protection of personal data in electronic communications and repealing Directive 2002/58/EC ." It would repeal the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive 2002 and would be lex specialis to the General Data Protection Regulation. It would particularise and complement the latter in respect of privacy-related topics. Key fields of the proposed regulation are the confidentiality of communications, privacy controls through electronic consent and browsers, and cookies.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is an EU regulation adopted in 2022 that addresses illegal content, transparent advertising and disinformation. It updates the Electronic Commerce Directive 2000 in EU law, and was proposed alongside the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD/CS3D) is a directive in European Union (EU) law to require due diligence for companies to prevent adverse human rights and environmental impacts in the company's own operations and across their value chains. It was adopted in 2024.
