The BEA requests a small extension of the extrajudicial platform

The Administration of the Athens Chamber of Commerce has sent a letter to the Minister of Finance, Christos Staikouras, requesting an extension to the operation of the “old” platform of the extrajudicial mechanism, which ends tomorrow, for all applications that are in the final stages of negotiation.

In the letter it is pointed out that the BEA, knowing from the inside the problems and the daily struggle of small and medium entrepreneurs for the survival and preservation of their businesses, in combination with its institutional role as an advisory body of the State, with its intervention wants to inform the government’s financial staff of the following:

Upon the passing of Law 4941 / 2022 (Government Gazette A’ 113/16-06-2022) “Reform of the institutional framework for the operation of the Financial Stability Fund and the Guarantee Fund for the Guarantee of Investment Services, modernization of the Public Debt Management Organization and other urgent provisions”, an amendment was introduced, according to which “if by July 6th a restructuring agreement has not been signed between the parties in the pending cases within the framework of the old out-of-court mechanism of Law 4469/2017 (regardless of the stage at which the procedure is), then it is presumed that these cases have been concluded as fruitless, and the electronic application submission platform ceases to function”.

According to the BEA administration, the above amendment causes serious consequences for those who have already submitted an application in accordance with the provisions of Law 4469/2017, many of whom are in the final stages of negotiation, but the above deadline is not sufficient for the signature of the restructuring agreement.

In this context, the BEA proposes to the Minister of Finance Christos Staikouras, the replacement of article 94 “Pending applications of extrajudicial mechanism of Law 4469/2017 of Law 4941/2022, as follows:

“If at the entry into force of the present, at least a Sustainable Debt Restructuring Plan has been submitted to the Creditors and the Debtor by the Expert chosen by the Creditors, in accordance with paragraph 8 of article 8 and article 11 of Law 4469/2017, then the Coordinator, within a period of twenty (20) working days from the entry into force of this, reactivates the provisions of article 8 of Law 4469/2017 without the right of extension. /2017, then the Debt Restructuring Plan is considered approved pursuant to paragraph 8 of article 8 of Law 4469/2017”.

In the letter, the Athens Chamber of Commerce also emphasizes that, in order for the provisions of the extrajudicial mechanism to work favorably for the parties concerned and for the pending cases that are in the final stages of the extrajudicial mechanism to proceed smoothly, it hopes for a positive response from the Minister of Finance, as ” the objective admission of the difficult economic situation should not lead the state to deny the reality and to implement policies that “typically” deal with the problems, while in fact these remain unsolved and constantly worsening”.