The SNB represents the employees in negotiations with the managements of the companies involved in the merger in order to reach a written agreement on employee participation in the company resulting from the merger. In principle, the SNB should be established if one of the three exceptional cases under Art. 16 II Mergers Directive applies. Timewise, the SNB must be established as soon as the enterprise managements have made known their intention to merge. The SNB can request that experts of its choice assist it in its work. In this context, the Directive explicitly mentions the possibility of calling in representatives of Community-level trade union organisations (Art. 16 III lit. a Mergers Directive in conjunction with Art. 3 IV SE Directive).