site.btaDraft Revisions Introduce Accelerated Liquidation of Defunct Companies

The Council of Ministers approved a bill amending the Commerce Act. It creates the conditions for conducting liquidation proceedings in a short period of time for companies that meet certain conditions. The creation of a legal framework for the accelerated liquidation of legal entities is also a commitment of Bulgaria under the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Currently, the voluntary liquidation of a business in Bulgaria takes nearly a year, the procedure is lengthy and costly. At the same time, between 30,000 and 50,000 new legal entities are created per year, with more than 90% of start-ups failing in the initial steps.

Through the draft revisions, the facilitation of the process is being achieved along two main lines - shortening the procedural timescales and introducing a 'one-stop shop' through the Registry Agency. In view of creating relief and reducing the administrative burden, the conditions for conducting summary liquidation proceedings are only to be declared and the submission of a declaration of these conditions should be sufficient for applications to be processed in a shorter timeframe.