Government opts out of European Commission proposals and sees off threat to UK rescue culture

November 2011

R3 is pleased to learn of the governments announcement that Britain will opt out of plans to introduce a European Account Preservation Order (EAPO). R3 had repeatedly warned of the threat to the UK’s rescue culture over the plans.

Although they were designed to make it easier to recover debts in cross-border cases, in practice the plans would give courts anywhere in the EU power to freeze funds in UK businesses’ banks accounts without warning. The rigorous checks and balances over the validity of the claim that we have in the UK were sorely missing from the proposals. We are pleased this threat to the UK’s rescue culture has been recognised by this decision.

R3 has been liaising closely with officials, stakeholders, and MPs to highlight the negative implications of the plans - opting out of EU Regulations is a significant move. R3 is proud to have played our part in averting the introduction of a Regulation that would have had such a detrimental impact on business rescue through insolvency and restructuring.