The Government predicts that the courts will save some 14,000 bankruptcy proceedings thanks to the implementation of the mediation for SMEs and the self-employed. It is a tool to promote the negotiation of debts between small companies and their creditors, with the mediation of a professional who articulates this negotiating process.
This measure is included within the Draft Law to support entrepreneurs and their internationalization, which aims to promote entrepreneurial culture and facilitate the creation of companies.
Extrajudicial mediation is part of what they call “promotion of second opportunity”. Its main objective is that those SMEs and the self-employed with debt that could cause them to stop working can avoid bankruptcy (since it is a process that has proven useless in these cases) and negotiate with the creditors the debt restructuring and the payment terms.
Although there is nothing official yet, it seems that the mediator will be assigned by the Government itself (through the Ministry of Justice). Your job will consist of doing a “quick” study and developing a payment structuring plan, which will then the parties must negotiate.
The costs of mediation will be borne by the debtor, although they will be much lower than the costs of bankruptcy proceedings.
The approval of this law may be of vital importance since, currently, the 90% of companies in Spain are SMEs and self-employed and generate 70% of employment. With measures like these it is intended that they can save their business and start from scratch.
Last Friday the 24th, a report on this Draft Law was presented to the Council of Ministers and it is expected that it will be debated in the coming weeks and ratified in Congress.
Photo source: Daninava
