Jurisdiction(s):
European Union

Key definition

European companies definition

What does European companies mean? In legal practice, European companies refers to EU-level corporate forms intended for cross‑border trading under a single legal form, most commonly the European public limited‑liability company (Societas Europaea or SE). The term is descriptive; the SE is created by Council Regulation (EC) No 2157/2001 and supplemented by Directive 2001/86/EC on employee involvement. A related EU form is the European Cooperative Society (SCE) under Regulation (EC) No 1435/2003. Key features of SEs (and, where relevant, SCEs) include separate legal personality recognised across all EU member States, plc‑style status, minimum subscribed capital of €120,000 (SE), options for one‑tier or two‑tier boards, rules...

European Companies (Societas Europaea): EU framework, formation routes, one‑tier/two‑tier governance, capital and shareholder meetings, employee involvement, and cross‑border registered office transfers, with post‑Brexit UK implications

Published by a LexisNexis EU Law expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note gives an overview of the European company, Societas Europaea, or ‘SE’. It outlines how SEs are set up and run, their head office, share capital and shareholders, arrangements for employee participation, and the mechanism for shifting a head office from one Member State to another.

What is a European company?

A European company, also called a Societas Europaea (SE), is a corporate body that can be created within the EU. Once entered on the register in the Member State where its principal office sits, an SE enjoys recognition across Europe and holds its own separate legal personality.

What is a head office?

‘Head office’ is not defined in EU legislation. The meaning of ‘head office’ was examined in the setting of Regulation (EC) 1346/2000 on insolvency proceedings (now no longer in force) in the Opinion of Advocate General Jacobs delivered on 27 September 2005 in Case C‑341/04, Eurofood IFSC (paragraphs 106–126 and 152(3)).

An SE is a public limited liability company regulated by the law of the Member State in which it has its registered office. It must have share capital, and a minimum portion of that share capital must be subscribed for (see ‘Share capital and...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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