Toward a European Business Rescue Culture

Since 2011, the European legislator has taken a new course of action on business failure and insolvency. For a long time, substantive harmonisation was considered unfeasible in the area of insolvency law, however, the developments over the past years have shown that the EU is committed to develop a shared European approach to facilitate the rescue of economically viable but financially distressed businesses. This Chapter discusses the incremental process of harmonisation that has unfolded, the areas in which this harmonization is pursued, and the barriers that the EU faces in achieving a European business rescue culture.This chapter portrays, in particular, how the European Union has been working to develop a European business rescue culture. Part one of this chapter will elaborate on the efforts of the European Parliament and European Commission to develop a shared perspective on rescuing distressed businesses. Subsequently, part two will discuss the role of current research in this field. The authors discuss a research project of the European Law Institute on ‘Rescue of Business in Insolvency Law'. In part three some observations will be made with regard to the recent developments in the EU, including a discussion on several barriers that need to be overcome to successfully achieve a European business rescue culture