On Tuesday 13 May, MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) examined the 352 amendments tabled to the draft directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of insolvency law (see EUROPE 13079/2).
Although the rapporteur, Emil Radev (EPP, Bulgarian), was absent, his words were read by the committee chairman, Ilhan Kyuchyuk (Renew Europe, Bulgarian). It was reaffirmed that “the aim of this directive is not to protect workers, but rather to harmonise standards relating to insolvency”.
The need for “legal certainty” to avoid discouraging cross-border investment was highlighted.
This position was challenged by shadow rapporteur René Repasi (S&D, German), who felt that “to say that the protection of workers conflicts with aspects of legal certainty and that the purpose of solvency law is not to protect workers is a bold statement, to say the least”.
According to him, “workers have put in a lot of hard work (...) and expect to be paid for it”. He therefore calls for their protection to be seen as “an integral part of insolvency law”.
The discussion also covered the situation of micro-enterprises. The rapporteur proposes that Chapter VI on simplified winding-up procedures be deleted. But this approach has been criticised.
“There is a real problem”, said Andreas Stein, Head of Unit at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice. “Many small businesses do not have enough money to pay for the process and we need to ensure that they have access to it” he added.
Jana Toom (Renew Europe, Estonian), for her part, proposed “introducing a maximum remuneration threshold for micro-enterprises” and leaving it up to the Member States to cover the costs associated with these procedures.
Ton Diepeveen (PfE, Dutch) aligned himself with the rapporteur’s position, expressing concerns about “further relaxation of access to foreign insolvency practitioners” and respect for data confidentiality as cyber-security is strengthened.
There were also differences of opinion on the ‘pre-pack’ procedure. René Repasi welcomed the interest. However, he warned against “calling workers’ rights into question”.
Andreas Stein defended its leading role. “If the company cannot be sold, the assets will be sold off in lots (...); what will be lost will be jobs”, he stated on this topic.
Arash Saeidi (The Left, French) also pointed out that “economic justice must not be achieved at the expense of employees”. He also called for attention to “the transparency of restructuring plans” and for “the effectiveness of wage claims” to be guaranteed.
The vote in committee is scheduled for before the summer, and the start of inter-institutional negotiations is expected in the second half of this year.
The amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/gtv (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)