Roughly 2,000 trade unionists from across Europe massed outside the European Parliament building in Strasbourg on 20 October 2026, demanding binding guarantees that existing workers’ rights will survive a proposed EU company law.
The demonstration targeted the draft directive for a so-called 28th Regime, marketed by Brussels under the label EU Inc. Among the organisations behind the protest were UNI Europa and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), joined by the French unions CFDT, CGT, FO, CFTC and UNSA.
What the unions fear
Their case against the proposal rests on several claims: that companies could shop for member states with weaker social standards, swap wages for stock options, sidestep collective bargaining and information duties, and carry out faster liquidations. The
ETUC general secretary Esther Lynch said on 20 October 2026 that EU Inc would let businesses disregard existing labour laws and opt for a rulebook with weaker worker protections, which she called unacceptable.
Oliver Roethig, regional secretary of UNI Europa, warned the same day that the arrangement could leave employees in France working for Bulgarian wage levels.
National leaders were equally critical. Sophie Binet, general secretary of the French CGT, described the plan as the European Commission’s misguided answer to social hardship and warned of expanded social dumping and economic crime. Bert Engelaar, president of Belgium’s ABVV, argued employers could pick whichever legal framework suits them and thereby weaken social protection; without binding safeguards, he said, the draft must be stopped.
Branislav Rugani of the French FO also raised the alarm over wage and social dumping, while Peter Hellberg of UNI Global Union said the direction of the proposal had been shaped by expectations from Donald Trump’s circle.
Brussels’ pitch — and a stalled committee
The European Commission presents EU Inc as an optional digital legal framework allowing a company to be set up within 48 hours for less than 100 euros and with no minimum capital. Business has welcomed it: 50 chief executives and investors urged lawmakers not to water the legislation down.
Inside the European Parliament, however, the file needs more discussion. The legal affairs committee postponed a vote scheduled for that sitting week to 5 November, after no agreement on the text was reached the previous Monday.
A campaign with a Lithuanian thread
Some 15 union organisations took part in the Strasbourg gathering, from countries including Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, France, Luxembourg, Greece and Georgia.
Lithuanian delegates from the LPSK, the food producers’ organisation, the Achema employees’ union and Solidarumas used the protest to meet their MEPs directly: Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, Aurelijus Veryga and Virginijus Sinkevičius. They stressed that administrative simplification must not open the door to shell companies or allow national labour laws to be circumvented.
Strasbourg was not the first stop. European unions had already demonstrated against the 28th Regime in Brussels on 24 September 2026.
