The new agreement is with Norsk Hydro ASA and replaces the previous regional EWC agreements with Hydro Aluminium AS.

The European Union directive that is the basis for the EWC agreement, was established to promote and regulate forums for cooperation and information between employers and employee representatives.

The EWC agreement creates a framework for the company's annual meeting with employee representatives. In this meeting, led by Hydro's President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg, about 30 employee representatives from around Europe will participate, including from the big unions in Norway and Germany.

The agenda for the meeting will cover the overall plans and priorities of the concern overall and the individual business areas.

The event is an important meeting point for Hydro that gives a wide variety of representatives of employees in Europe the opportunity to have a direct dialog with corporate management.

The Primary Metal, Rolled Products and Extruded Products business areas in Hydro have entered into their own regional agreements with their employee representatives to continue the tradition of informational meetings at the business area level, called "Regional Communication Bodies." Getting these regional agreements in place was an important part of the process to establishing the concern agreement for the EWC.