The purposes of this assignment are:

1) to collect data about the national reforms implementing the Commission Recommendation on a new approach to business failure and insolvency of 12.3.2014 in the 28 Member States;

2) to collect data in order to complete the comparative law information at the disposal of the Commission in respect of:

— cross-cutting subject matters which are relevant for both preventive and formal insolvency procedures, such as the regulation, status and powers of insolvency practitioners, the duties and liabilities of directors and the recognition of disqualifications, rules on the ranking of claims/order of priorities and the conditions under which certain detrimental acts can be avoided,

— aspects specific to formal insolvency proceedings, rules on the liquidation of the estate, certain procedural issues such as the conditions for opening insolvency proceedings, the filing of claims, the involvement of creditors, fast-track or standardised procedures for SMEs;

3) to collect data about the procedures available to over-indebted consumers/households;

4) to analyse the data and identify areas where the disparity of national laws creates problems which have a cross-border dimension.