The main representatives of the insolvency sector in Europe they have recently met in Barcelona. The reason, the first “European Congress on Second Chance” organized by the Barcelona Bar Association (ICAB).
Among other relevant figures, he highlighted the institutional opening by the first vice president of the Government, Nadia Calviño; as well as the participation of the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, the president of the General Council of Spanish Lawyers, Victoria Ortega, and the president of CICAC and dean of ICAB, Maria Eugènia Gay.
The meeting focused on the draft bill for the transposition of the European directive 2019/1023, which has caused controversy in Spain since its approval in August of this year. One of the points that has caused the most criticism from the different parties involved in insolvency processes is the special procedure for micro-SMEs, set out in the third book of the preliminary draft.
Therefore, the congress dedicated a legal round table to address the challenges and proposals on this measure, led by Yvonne Pavía Lalauze, deputy of the governing board of the Barcelona Bar Association, and in which Ana Belén Campuzano participated. Laguillo, professor of Commercial Law at the San Pablo-CEU University, José María Fernández Seijo, magistrate of the fifteenth section of the Provincial Court of Barcelona, and Béatrice Dunogué-Gaffié, president of the European Insolvency Practitioners Association.
Both Pavía and Campuzano agreed to emphasize the work of lawyers and bankruptcy administrators, in the face of Fernández’s doubts about its usefulness. Dunogué-Gaffié contributed the vision of the European insolvency administrators, being surprised that the work of these professionals in insolvency proceedings was questioned, a key figure to ensure impartiality in these processes.
Debtor helplessness
The president of EIP regretted that the draft proposed leaving such necessary figures out of the process, claiming that the debtor would be left helpless. He pointed out that, in most cases of micro-SMEs, entrepreneurs do not have sufficient knowledge of the legal framework or insolvency to be able to manage their situation.
Dunogué-Gaffié insisted on the need to provide this professional support through profiles that can provide a real image of the state of the companies, that are impartial and fair. “This does not mean”, he stressed, “That the bankruptcy administrator is against the debtor, as is often wrongly understood, but we have the knowledge, experience and neutrality to be objective and see the reality of the solvency of a company”.
Against the idea that eliminating the bankruptcy administrator would save expenses, the president of EIP stressed that if what we are looking for is efficiency, having a professional is key to see if a company is viable or not, since “Insolvency administrators are experts in the field, they can streamline processes and know the necessary tools in each case”.
Dunogué-Gaffié, concluded his intervention by pointing out that in France they have a specific profession dedicated entirely to insolvency cases, since, according to his words, “It doesn’t matter how good the law is. If you don’t have the right person to implement it, it will become nothing “.
