The European Commission has the intention to issue a legislative initiative during 2016 on insolvency reform with the purpose to harmonise the insolvency regimes of the Member States.
The task is huge. It would probably make sense to have the insolvency regimes harmonised in several stages. Not everything or every situation in an insolvency regime has the same importance and effects. Also, there are parts of the insolvency regimes which are so different in each Member State (mainly due to historic reasons) that their harmonisation is very difficult to be accepted and thus has to be imposed and previously intensively negotiated. What is certain is that businesses across Member States have the same characteristics and that businesses operating across borders would like to enjoy the same rules in each Member State. Thus the problem is not a business problem but rather a political one which would probably need a political solution.
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