BORK, R. / VEDER, M. / SCHUIJLING, B.
With its Proposal for a Directive harmonising certain aspects of insolvency law (2022/0408 (COD)), the European Commission is aiming to harmonise national insolvency laws. Terms such as insolvency or inability to pay debts are used, but have not yet been defined in EU law. However, harmonisation attempts cannot be successful without such definitions. It cannot be assumed that courts and insolvency practitioners in all countries will understand and apply these terms in the same way. On closer inspection, it turns out that national laws differ so much on this point that there can be no question of a common understanding of the term insolvency and its subspecies.
The present book, which is the fruit of a research project, has therefore set itself the task of using detailed questionnaires to record the definitions of the terms inability to pay debts, cessation of payments, likely or imminent inability to pay debts, and overindebtedness in the national laws of all EU Member States (and the UK). It quickly became apparent that, although these terms are used in all or at least many States, the understanding of the terms differs widely. There can be no doubt that harmonisation of insolvency law cannot succeed if one does not simultaneously define what is meant by insolvency.
