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 MORARU
1
Assistant professor Diab HASANIN
2
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 .