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The thesis analyses the secondary establishment of foreign European Union public companies limited by shares in France, Greece and Italy. The conditions for the establishment of branches, agencies and subsidiaries in the three countries are presented. Their compliance with European Community law is evaluated. Although the formal conditions for the recognition and secondary establishment of foreign companies comply with European Community law, national legislative and administrative practices limit the activities allowed to foreign persons and violate their free establishment, as confirmed by the European Court of Justice. This proves the first hypothesis: the companies' freedom of establishment is still violated. The second hypothesis is that the persistence of France, Greece and Italy to continue these violations is mainly due to the lack of effective judicial protection for foreign companies suffering damages as a result. Judicial protection at the national level, in national judicial proceedings, even where the European Union principle of state liability is raised, is ineffective due to the privileges of the state in actions against it. In view of the currently minimal role that individuals may play in proceedings before the European Court of Justice, the only manner in which protection at the European Union level can be sought is through the Francovich scenario, which combines state liability and preliminary rulings from the European Court of Justice. The inefficiencies of national proceedings and the inherent problems of indirect actions before the European Court of Justice render the Francovich scenario inadequate for the protection of companies. This proves the second hypothesis. In the future a possible, yet untested, new interpretation of concurrent liability may allow companies to seek redress before the European Courts on the basis of concurrent liability between the breaching Member State and the Community for failure of the Commission to perform its supervisory duty.