Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Over 150 bankruptcy procedures in Serbia completed in past two years

11 May 2007

Belgrade, May 11, 2007 –Director of the Serbian Bankruptcy Supervision Agency Jovan Jovanovic stated today that since the new Law on bankruptcy procedure was adopted in 2005, bankruptcy was initiated in 400 companies whereas the process was completed in 150 of them.

Zoran Stojkovic

Author: Fonet

In a press conference held on the occasion of the third international conference of the accession countries council of INSOL Europe (ACC INSOL Europe) in Belgrade, Jovanovic said that the new law is being applied for a year now, which considerably reduced the time frame for executing bankruptcy procedures.

He stated that the biggest problem are the bankruptcy procedures that were launched under the old law as under the new law, all old bankruptcy procedures are to be completed according to the provisions of the previous law.

According to him, currently in Serbia there are 21 reorganisation procedures, two-thirds of which are in private firms whereas one-third are companies with socially owned capital.

Serbian Minister of Justice Zoran Stojkovic said that the situation in Serbia got better as bankruptcy procedures reduced both in number and length, which was also helped by the passing of the Law on bankruptcy in February 2005.

Stojkovic gave the example of the Leskovac Commercial Court, where 118 bankruptcy procedures were underway for over ten years and now already 90 of them have been completed in the past two years.

Vice President of INSOL Europe Carlos Mack said that bankruptcy is not unusual in Europe, but noted that procedures are different as companies have no socially owned capital, which makes bankruptcy procedures more difficult in Serbia.

According to him, nearly 60,000 bankruptcy procedures of private persons are carried out in Germany every year, and the number in France and England is similar.

As for companies, the number is smaller – 780 in Spain whereas Germany and France record up to 30,000 bankruptcies a year, Mack said.

The INSOL Europe conference, which is taking place today and tomorrow, will gather 220 bankruptcy managers from up to 26 countries.

The INSOL Europe Association, formerly known as the European Insolvency Practitioners Association, is the largest European organisation of professional insolvency lawyers founded in 1981 in France.