The center of main interests of the debtor in the insolvency proceedings at the European Union level differences between the EU Regulation no. 1346/29.05.2000 and EU Regulation no. 848/20.5.2015

• Author: Beatrice Mihaela Moraru/Diab Hasanin
• Pages: 164-168

The center of main interests of the debtor in the insolvency

proceedings at the European Union level differences between

the EU Regulation no. 1346/29.05.2000 and EU Regulation

no. 848/20.5.2015

Lawyer Beatrice Mihaela MORARU1

Assistant professor Diab HASANIN2

Abstract

In this paper we will present the notion of Center of Main Interests (COMI) of a

debtor in the insolvency proceedings at the European Union level in the light of EU

Regulation No. 1346 / 29.05.2000 and the EU Regulation No. 848 / 20.05.2015 with constant

reference to the European jurisprudence. The concept of center of main interests of a debtor

has a particular importance in the cross border bankruptcy cases as its location determines

the court which is competent to o pen the insolvency proceedings. Although at the European

level adopting the EU Regulation No. 1346 / 29.05.2000 was considered a legislative

progress in bankruptcy proceedings, in the end it had relatively few applications as it was

unable to cover large factual aspects. The mentioned regulation was offering a rigid and

abstract definition and interpretation of the COMI concept which resulted in important legal

application divergences that lead in the end to a legislative reform. This legislative reform

was concluded with the adoption of EU Regulation No. 848 / 20.5.2015

Keywords: center of main interests, insolvency proceedings, EU Regulation no.

1346/29.05.2000, EU Regulation no. 848/20.05.2015, Eurofood, Interedil.

JEL Classification: K33

1. Introduction

In this paper we will focus on the notion of Center of Main Interests (COMI)

of a debtor in the event of its insolvency, when the assets and/or the creditors of this

debtor (company) are located in several EU Member States (cross border

bankruptcy). This has become increasingly common in the context of fluctuations of

international financial markets and the trade globalization, leading inevitably to legal

developments in the field in order to avoid subjecting the creditors to different and

disadvantageous procedures within the states where the debtor owns property.

At European level, after 30 years of attempts to standardize and harmonize

the regulations on cross-border insolvency proceedings by adopting several

1 Beatrice Mihaela Moraru - Lawyer within Brasov’s Bar Association, Romania,

beatrice.moraru@hotmail.it.

2 Diab Hasanin - Faculty of Law, Birzeit University, Palestine, hasanin.diab@gmail.com .