EN    EN 
 
 
 EUROPEAN  
COMMISSION   
Brussels, 13.4.2015  
COM(2015) 173 final  
2012/0360 (COD)  
  
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION  
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  
 
pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  
 
concerning the  
position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and 
of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1346/2000 on insolvency 
proceedings   
EN 2   EN 2012/0360 (COD)  
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION  
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  
 
pursuant to Article 294(6)  of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  
 
concerning the  
position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and 
of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1346/2000 on insolvency 
proceedings  
1. BACKGRO UND  
Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council  
(document COM( 2012 ) 744 final – 2012 /0360 COD):  13. 12. 2012 . 
Date of the opinion of the European Economic and Social 
Committee:  22. 05. 2013 . 
Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading:  05. 02. 2014 . 
Date of adoption of the position of the Council:  12. 03. 2015 . 
2. OBJECTIVE OF THE PROP OSAL FROM THE COMMISSION  
The Commission proposal amending the Insolvency Regulation was adopted on 12 December 
2012. Its main aim is to promote a "rescue culture" in the EU. The main elements of the 
proposal are the following: it extends the scope of the Regulation to cover "preventive" 
insolvency proceedings which aim at rescuing businesses and to cover a larger ran ge of 
personal insolvency proceedings; it clarifies the criteria for jurisdiction (centre of main 
interest – COMI) and improves the procedural framework for examining jurisdiction; it 
establishes a system of interconnected insolvency registers to increase transparency for 
debtors; it enhances chances of rescuing companies by avoiding the opening of secondary 
proceedings where interests of local creditors are otherwise guaranteed (so -called "synthetic 
secondary proceedings"); it provides a legal framework fo r coordinating the proceedings of 
members of groups of companies.  
3. COMMENTS ON THE POSIT ION OF THE COUNCIL  
The Council's position endorses all core elements of the Commission’s proposal with some 
technical changes as to the details. Those amendments include additional measures to fight 
abusive forum shopping by consumers, the requirement of approval of synthetic secondary 
proceedings by a majority of the local creditors, and the establishment of so called 'group 
coordination proceedings'. The Commissi on supports these amendments.  
Following the informal tripartite discussions on 15 October 2014 and 10 November 2014, the 
Parliament, the Council and the Commission reached provisional political agreement on the  
text of the new Insolvency Regulation (in a  recast form).   
EN 3   EN This political agreement was confirmed by the Council on 4 December 2014, and on 12 
March 2015 the Council adopted its first reading position.  
4. CONCLUSION  
As all amendments introduced to the Commission proposal were agreed on during the 
informal tripartite discussions, the Commission can accept the amendments that the Council 
adopted in its first reading position.