mr president behind the commission consultative paper on debtors assets is the concern that late payment and non-payment of debts jeopardise the interests of businesses and consumers
this is particularly the case when the creditor and the enforcement authorities have no information about the debtor's whereabouts or his or her assets
the problem can be resolved where the debtor has assets in the eu and it is possible to trace them and bring legal proceedings
the commission in its report suggested drawing up a manual of national enforcement laws and practices and highlighted the possibility of increasing access to population registers
it also raised questions on whether enforcement authorities should be given better access to social security and tax registers
the proposal suggested that the cooperation between public enforcement bodies might be improved and lastly it put forward the idea of a european assets declaration which would oblige debtors to disclose all their assets in the european judicial area possibly backed by sanctions
my report as voted by the committee suggested that creditors would benefit from the introduction of a simpler more flexible procedure effective throughout the eu to obtain an order to disclose information about assets which may then be made the subject of a judgement
such measures could take the form of an interim payment order giving the creditor immediate payment pending resolution of the underlying dispute
the report also calls for a study into how the present national systems work with a comparison between common-law countries such as britain and other european jurisdictions and how existing arrangements could be improved
it also highlights the need to consider areas in which further cooperation with member states could have a positive effect and how the proposals will work alongside existing data protection and human rights legislation
we have endeavoured to shape the report along these lines and the compromises arrived at by the committee have already ironed out some of the discrepancies between member states legal systems
many of the additions we have made are designed to make the proposal more transparent and easier to use for the creditor
it will therefore be imperative to ensure that the proposed manual of national enforcement laws and practices is kept updated and that the information is provided in easy-to-use format and that it should be written in an accessible language
it will also be crucial for the initiative to act in tandem with rather than replacing the work of national courts
this will require the legislation to be restricted only to cross-border cases
by bearing this caveat in mind the enforcement of this legislation will made to work efficiently and proactively
overall the report will do much to help small businesses and enterprising individuals to overcome a significant obstacle to their success because they lack the resources of large enterprises to track down debtors and bring legal action against them
small businesses are affected disproportionately by people defaulting on payments
if companies are thereby discouraged from trading abroad this represents a real threat to the very functioning of the common market
it will be vital to protect the activities of small businesses at this difficult time because smes make up a large proportion of our economy
i would like to thank the legal affairs committee secretariat and to praise the excellent support they have given me on this report
thanks must also go to colleagues from other groups who have made very constructive suggestions
what is key i believe is for this legislation to be brought forward as soon as possible
i call on the commission to act on parliament's recommendations with urgency
much of the good work that the member states have been doing in responding to the market downturn has to be focused for large-scale enterprises
