The European Commission, through its President Ursula von der Leyen, has launched a major drive to systematically review and simplify the EU’s 100,000-page regulatory framework. The Commission’s plan centres on the “Competitiveness Compass” with an ambitious target to cut administrative burdens by at least 25% for all businesses and 35% for SMEs. It seems a Herculean job.
The Commission is launching multiple “omnibus” legislative packages to review, streamline or consolidate existing laws (those dealing with sustainability-reporting, due-diligence and the single market), and a stress-test through the entire “acquis” (i.e. the constantly evolving entire body of common rights and obligations that bind all EU member states) to identify overlaps, outdated obligations and disproportionate burdens on business.
It wants to ensure that “decluttering” the European rulebook and rigidly applying Brussels’ new buzzword “simplification” does not compromise the EU’s core objectives – proper function of the union’s market with tensioned policies regarding climate neutrality – while making the regulatory environment more favourable to innovation, investment and growth.
On 21 October 2025, the European Commission adopted its 2026 work programme, with the touching title “Europe’s Independence Moment”. The Commissions’ initiatives are spread around six annexes. Some deserve attention.
Annex I outlines new policy initiatives and applies the updated simplification policy. Each new initiative will be reviewed against the policy objective (e.g., competitiveness, simplification), whether it is legislative or non-legislative, indicative timing, and whether there is a significant simplification dimension (“simplification initiatives or initiatives with a strong simplification dimension are presented with a blue background”). The first initiative in this Annex is ‘Competitiveness and Innovation 28th Regime for Innovative Companies (legislative, Articles 50 and 114 TFEU, Q1 2026)’. See my blog https://bobwessels.nl/blog/2025-06-doc1-eus-working-agenda-for-restructuring-and-insolvency-revealed/.
Annex III is a list of pending proposals that includes “still in the pipeline” proposals, including the proposal for the Directive, issued in December 2022, on harmonising certain aspects of insolvency law. It includes: (i) a set of provisions on avoidance actions; (ii) several rules on tracing assets belonging to the insolvency estate (also available in the context of the EIR 2015, stipulating that, in principle, insolvency practitioners may exercise in other member states the powers conferred on them by the law of the member state where the main insolvency proceedings have been opened and they have been appointed); (iii) a set of rules for so-called pre-pack proceedings; (iv) provisions regarding the duties of directors and their liability in case of insufficient or detrimental measures to maximise the value of the insolvency estate; and (v) provisions on the creditors’ committee. After the political decision was made not to further discuss proposed rules for MSMEs, is the simplification comb now being run through certain topics?
Annex IV, which lists intended withdrawals, and Annex V, which lists repeals, do not include insolvency or restructuring topics.
To summarise, the 28th Regime for Innovative Companies, creating an optional EU framework – including its own insolvency rules – for startups and cross-border businesses is expected to be presented within five months. The “certain aspects” directive will be ready to publish in an even shorter period.
I am assuming that a report on the application and the impact of the Preventive Restructuring Directive (foreseen to be published mid-2026) and the review of the European Insolvency Regulation (expected in mid-2027), won’t be affected by the simplicity magic wand.
So, the wind may have changed, but the insolvency and restructuring ship will continue to sail forward.
References
This is a slightly adapted version of a regular column Bob Wessels is writing for Global Restructuring Review (GRR) on the topic of cross-border restructuring and insolvency in a European context. GRR is a subscription-only publication and the column appeared in GRR on October 30, 2025. See www.globalrestructuringreview.com.