The 1995 European Community Convention on Insolvency Proceedings : An Insider's View

On November 23rd 1995 the EC Convention on Insolvency Proceedings was signed after three decades of successive rounds of negotiations.

Several drafts were discussed and abandoned in the process.

The objective of this text is to offer an introductory insight to the 1995 EC Insolvency Convention.

In this, the basic structure of the Insolvency Convention has been taken as a lead.

The 1995 Insolvency Convention represents a major step forward in the international regulation of cross-border insolvencies.

It provides a framework of well-defined and enforceable rights, which will enable a high degree of intra-community co-operation.

This is not to say that all problems are solved. But for the first time in many years, an EC mechanism for better and more efficient international co-operation is really at hand.

The Convention equalizes the rights of creditors in the EU on a cross-border perspective, by means of a mandatory dividend-received deduction for creditors and a surplus-transfer in favour of the main proceedings.

It ensures the equality and uniformity of rights and obligations arising out of the Convention, both for the Contracting States and the parties concerned. For this purpose it confers on the Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ) jurisdiction to rule on the interpretation of its provisions.

The author was co-author of the explanatory report to the Convention.

However, the opinions expressed in this book are his own.