Parliament adopts amendments to privatization law

Parliament adopts amendments to privatization law

The new law envisages that the creditors of the restructuring companies need to file a request for claim settlement and the documents supporting their claims to the privatization Agency within 30 days.

The Agency has to register the requests within 90 days and establish the amount of claims for each creditor and company, and then draw up a proposition for the claim settlement which it needs to file to the creditor.

After the deadline expires, creditors have a 30-day deadline to state whether they agree with the Agency's proposition.

The amendments were adopted after the Constitutional Court decided that the provision of the privatization law is unconstitutional which prevents forceful claim enforcement from companies before the completion of the restructuring process.

The amendments to the law were adopted so as to establish the total debt by restructuring companies and prevent the block of their bank accounts as of May 14, when the Constitutional Court decision is due to become valid so that creditors' settlement claims could be activated.

This would bring into question the survival of over 150,000 employees in the restructuring companies, and the government's aim is to provide assistance to one third of the companies, i.e. to those deemed to be capable of survival, so that they may find strategic partners in the next five months.