Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-05-Speech-2-256"
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"en.20060905.25.2-256"2
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".
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I must begin by pointing out that the Commission has no direct responsibility where the law on bankruptcy is concerned. Since, however, this area is one of particular importance to smaller and medium-sized businesses, the Commission is endeavouring to act as an intermediary.
There are positive signs of these priorities being acted on at national level, with the national reform programmes for 2005 in connection with the Lisbon Strategy presented by approximately one-third of the Member States – and I might add that Greece is among them – including plans for the reform of the Member States' bankruptcy laws.
We have ensured that tried and tested procedures have been publicised, and have encouraged Member States to adopt them. In the Commission’s view, its work is focused on preventing insolvencies and promoting restructuring rather than on the winding up of businesses. We are working towards more business-friendly provisions for non-fraudulent insolvencies, and we are, finally, giving consideration to how to support new starts and give businesses a second chance.
Reference is made in the European Charter for Small Enterprises to the fact that some insolvencies can occur despite the exercise of responsible initiative and entrepreneurial risk-taking, and a review of national insolvency laws in the light of proven best practice is accordingly called for. Various steps have been taken to this end. Early in 2001, a seminar on the failure of enterprises was held in Noordwijk, at which the most important issues discussed were the improvement of bankruptcy legislation and the prevention of insolvencies. In mid-2002, the study ‘Bankruptcy and a Fresh Start’ was published, including a collection of data on the legal and social consequences of business insolvencies.
This survey formed the basis for the Commission’s Best Procedure project 'Restructuring, bankruptcy and a fresh start’ in 2003, which focused on the two issues of to what extent national insolvency law was an obstacle to an enterprise’s continued existence and to its making a new start, and what effect the blemish of failure has on the prospects for success of a business making a new start after failure and on the culture of entrepreneurship in general.
The outcomes of this project were presented in a report intended to support the trend in European policymaking towards changes in the legal framework of insolvency legislation. The principal recommendations and benchmarks ranged from an emphasis on the usefulness of external advice in preventing insolvencies via the role of up-to-date and reliable insolvency legislation in promoting settlements and restructuring measures through to the importance of drawing a clear distinction between fraudulent and non-fraudulent bankruptcy, while the report also set out the various relevant legal consequences. It did indeed help to step up efforts across Europe towards the reform of insolvency law.
In response to a number of positions adopted in the ‘Entrepreneurship in Europe’ Green Paper, the Commission, in 2004, expanded the Entrepreneurship Action Plan by including in it a priority measure on business insolvencies with three specific objectives.
The first of these was that the Member States should be encouraged to implement the recommendations of the group of experts on ‘restructuring, bankruptcy and a fresh start’. The second was that business failure should be better understood, and the third was the promotion of preventive measures for businesses at risk.
Further to the second and third objectives, the Commission is currently developing, as part of the multiannual ‘Stigma of Failure and Early Warning Instruments’ project, an information kit and self-assessment tests enabling entrepreneurs to recognise at an early stage, when the prospects of getting help are still good, the risk factors by which their business is affected.
On 28 March 2006, the Commission staged a conference in Brussels on the subject of ‘Insolvency and a fresh start’, which looked at the methods for preventing insolvencies, the ways whereby the stigma of business failure might be counteracted, and the encouragement of fresh starts following non-fraudulent business insolvencies."@en1
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