Council Regulation 2157/2001 on the statute for a European Company (SE) was implemented in Latvia by the Law on European commercial companies, which integrated Directive 2001/86/EC. The Law on SEs was adopted on 10 March 2005 and came into force on 7 April 2005.

The text of the directive was transposed into Latvian legislation as closely as possible to the original, without real reference to the country’s specific needs. Employees’ participation rights in an SE are based on the employee participation rights existing before the SE was established.

During preparation of the law there were consultations with the Latvian Free Trade Union Confederation and the Employers’ Confederation. Overall, they supported adoption of the draft law, making a number of new proposals, some of which were introduced into the text. There were no direct consultations with foreign experts, but the Danish experience in this respect was referred to.

Nothing has been done to inform the general public and a communication plan for that purpose has not been developed. A European Company, as a new kind of holding company, can be registered in the Commercial Register of the Republic of Latvia by means of a special application form. No SE had been registered by April 2006.