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EFES' objective is to act as the European umbrella organization of employee owners and all persons, companies, trade unions, experts, researchers, institutions, all those people who are looking to promote employee ownership and participation in Europe. The European Federation is developing, with the contribution of experts, legal specialists and economists. It is setting up a European centre for information, meeting, training, advice, representation and lobbying to serve its members. It also organises many events and meetings in Europe to promote and develop the participation of employee owners.

PREAMBLE TO THE STATUTES

Employee ownership and participation make a significant contribution to economic and social progress. They combine excellence in labour productivity and business performance with a broad, constructive social contribution. They are growing all over the world.

Employee owners, as neither just employees nor just shareholders but co- entrepreneurs, are taking on a new voice and seeking to make it heard at its rightful level: they are new social partners.

They have a new and important contribution to make to the debate and policy on the objectives of growth, competitiveness and employment in Europe.

Employee ownership is not a matter for employee owners alone. It is also a way of achieving better results for everybody: employee owners and others, employees and self-employed staff, managers, businesses and the population generally.

All major studies show that employee ownership provides competitive advantage to companies in terms of growth, profitability, productivity, efficiency, if employee ownership is combined with participative methods of management (to inform and involve employees in decision-making on job, group and company level ; empowering them in cooperating and in taking responsibility ; coaching and training for enabling them in group-work, feedback, communication, etc). EFES will promote wide-spread wealth, business excellence and humanity – in the workplace and in its environment – to go hand in hand.

That is why EFES wants to be an open federation. Open not only to employee owners, but to all those individuals, organisations, institutions and businesses which are looking to promote employee ownership and participation, in order to form as representative a federation as possible in all the countries of Europe.

One of EFES's foremost aims is to make employee owners' voices heard in
the social and political dialogue at the European level.

EFES aims to be an open, democratic and participatory European organisation, founded on shared values of openness to other points of view, dialogue and mutual respect.

EFES seeks to make it easier for employees and their employer companies to establish sustainable employee ownership and participation, by promoting throughout Europe developments in legislation and in financial and organisational structures.

EFES aims especially to promote the sharing of information and dialogue among countries, companies, workers' organisations and other social partners about good practice in the fields of employee ownership and participation.