Further develop the electronic interconnection of insolvency registers

Potential of action

The 2015 World Bank "Doing Business Report" ranks countries on the strength of their insolvency frameworks on a scale of 0-16. The EU simple average is 11.6, which is 5% below the OECD average for high income countries (12.2). Despite ongoing efforts to improve European insolvency and restructuring procedures, important differences persist across Member States. World Bank indicators suggest that recovery rates vary between 30% and 90% in the EU[1].

It is estimated that in the EU, 200,000 firms go bankrupt per year (600 a day), resulting in direct job losses of 1.7 million every year. More accessible and simplified debt restructuring procedures for SMEs could be also beneficial in terms of increasing the availability and cost of credit to start-ups[2].

Description of action

The Commission will further develop an electronic interconnection of insolvency registers to enhance transparency and legal certainty in the internal market. Member States are obliged to set up their own domestic insolvency electronic registers by 2018[3], while the establishment of the interconnection of insolvency registers is set for 30 June 2021 at the latest, with the aim to enhance the effective administration of cross-border insolvency proceedings, establishing a common framework for the benefit of all stakeholders. On the Commission side, the adoption of the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/917 established the technical specifications needed to set up the interconnection of insolvency registers, and the required technical implementation work took place in 2019. Therefore, for the purposes of the Action Plan, the action is completed. Next steps will now be the implementation and focus on Member States onboarding, leading to the launch of the system on the European e-Justice Portal in 2020.

The system shall provide a search service in all the official languages of the institutions of the Union in order to make available the mandatory information and any other documents or information included in the insolvency registers which the Member States choose to make available through the European e-Justice Portal.

Main responsible at the European Commission: DG JUST

Target date: 2019

Status: Completed

More info (website):https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_interconnected_insolvency_registers_search-246-en.do

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52012SC0416&from=EN

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32019R0917

[1]http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/roadmaps/docs/2016_just_025_insolvency_en.pdf

[2]http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/roadmaps/docs/2016_just_025_insolvency_en.pdf

[3] Regulation 2015/848