Groups of companies in insolvency proceedings - romanian and international perspective

AuthorGabriela Fierbin?eanu
PositionResearch Assistant PhD, Faculty of Law, 'Nicolae Titulescu' University of Bucharest; Chief of Insolvency Service, Trade Register Office Bucharest (email gabriela.fierbin?eanu@gmail.com).
Pages7-18
LESIJ NO. XXI, VOL. 2/2014
GROUPS OF COMPANIES IN INSOLVENCY PROCEEDINGS -
ROMANIAN AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Gabriela FIERBINŢEANU*
Abstract
Insolvency proceedings in case of groups of companies are no longer a surprise but a reality that
concerned in the last period of time the Romanian and also the European law-makers. Although at an
intuitive level the understanding of this construction must not raise many questions it is proven that not
always what you see is what you get, especially when insolvency proceedings are opened in case of
groups of companies. The aim of this article is to offer a global image on the effort made on national
and international level to codify and harmonize the insolvency law provisions in the field.
Keywords: groups of companies, Roma nian Insolvency Law, Council Regulation (EC)
no.1346/2000, UNCITRAL texts
Introduction*
The economi c crisis has gener ated an
increasing number of companies that have
experienced failur e of busine sses. As the
Communicatio n no . 742/12.12.2012 from
the Commission to the Europ ean
Parliament, the Council and the European
Economic and Social Committee “A new
European approach to business failur e and
insolvency” revealed, from 2 009 - 2011 a n
average of 200, 000 c ompanies went
bankrupt p er year in the Union and about a
quarter of this cases have a cross -border
element. I n this context it was clear for the
European legis lator that changes need to be
made in domestic insolvenc y legislation i n
areas with potential to hamper the
establishment of effic ient insolvenc y legal
framework and also at the I nsolvency
Regulation no.13 46/2000 level (the latter
was presented as a key action in Oc tober
2012 when the C ommission launched the
Single Marke t Act II). There are some
desirable change s in the national legislation
*Research Assistant PhD, Faculty of Law, “Nicolae Titulescu” University of Bucharest; Chief of Insolvency
Service, Trade Register Office Bucharest (email gabriela.fierbinţeanu@gmail.com).
to be mad e such as developing efficient
early warning tools for prevention in the
field of insolvency; pr omotion of a second
chance to honest businesses and adoption of
the measures that permit a clear distinction
between honest and fraudulent bankruptcy;
granting a discharge period for honest
entrepreneurs (Member States agreed on the
need to harmonize the period to discharge to
less than three years as stated in the
Competitiveness Council Conclusion, May
2011, following the launch of the Review of
the Small Business Act for Europe);
harmonization of different deadlines set by
national legislation required for the debtor to
declare its insolvency; transparency of t he
claims filin g and verification process;
proper regulation for groups of companies;
promoting restruc turing plans, all aimed to
increase certainty of cross-border
investments by securing the legal framework
and in particular by providing opportunities
to reco ver fir ms in dif ficulty, especially
small businesses.

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