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
Date: 2015-04-13
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: access to information, claim, financial solvency, jurisdiction

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   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  
 
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. 

BACKGROUND 

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 PROPOSAL 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  range  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  for  coordinating  the  proceedings  of 
members of groups of companies.  

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION 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 Commission 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).   

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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.  

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