Robert van Galen on BNR: ‘the number of bankruptcies is unnecessarily high’
Robert van Galen, NautaDutilh partner and chairman of INSOLAD, explained to Business News Radio (BNR) why the current bankruptcy law, which dates back to 1896, is rather inadequate and requires amendment. The number of bankruptcies in February of this year exceeded the number in January, despite the fact that declaring bankruptcy is not always necessary. ‘There are certainly cases in which a reorganisation would have been better’, according to Robert.
INSOLAD, the association of attorneys practising insolvency law, is advocating that the Dutch bankruptcy law should be amended on five points which would ‘make it easier for companies to reorganise’. During the radio programme ‘Zakendoen met’ (‘Doing business with’), Robert explained those five points. His explanations focused on such areas as the rules governing employee dismissal. The point of INSOLAD, according to Robert, ‘is that the decisions regarding employee dismissal must be taken more quickly, much more quickly than is now the case with the UWV (the Dutch Employees’ Insurance Agency) procedure.’ Then you avoid a situation in which, proverbially speaking, the horse dies even though the grass is growing. Amending the law ‘would promote economic activity, and that would benefit everyone’, concluded Robert.
The full interview can be heard at bnr.nl.