Okay, so in Post No. 221/09 I wrote the following about the bill on private company law reform, an important chunk of legislation practitioners in business and law have been quite eagerly waiting for for some years now.
We've been discussing the reshaping of Dutch corporate law in the field of private companies several times (see, e.g.,
here
with links). Now that the first tranche of the legislation process in
parliament has been completed (the Second Chamber has accepted the
proposal with some amendments), the waiting is for the second and last
tranche, to be completed by the First Chamber (that chamber can only
say yes or no, it cannot amend); if the process is picked-up and
completed before April 1, 2010, the expectation is that the new regime
for private companies will be operational as of July 1, 2010. So we're
actually getting somewhere here, or so it seems.
Uhm, or not.
Apparently, the committee on justice of the First Chamber of parliament seems to be delaying discussions on the bill, because the Ministry of Justice doesn't provide the full text of this bill and of others (especially some tax stuff). By delaying discussions on this bill, the committee is putting pressure on the ministry to come forward with the full text of bills in the future, when requested. The committee now, again: apparently, is aiming at continuing discussions on the bill in April 2010, but this may well also depend on the way the quarrel with the ministry turns out.
Huh? Well, that's a weird twist, I guess timing isn't everything always. To be sure, for you sceptics out there, I'm not making this up. Here's the key part from the notes by the "Vergadering van de vaste commissie voor Justitie" (roughly: the meeting of the regular committee on Justice) of February 2, 2010, confirming this course of events.
Via ambtelijke weg is begrepen dat het ministerie van Justitie geen doorlopende wettekst zal verstrekken met betrekking tot de wetsvoorstellen 28746 Vaststelling van titel 7.13 (vennootschap) van het Burgerlijk Wetboek 31065 Aanpassing van de wetgeving aan en invoering van titel 7.13 (vennootschap) van het Burgerlijk Wetboek (Invoeringswet titel 7.13 Burgerlijk Wetboek) en 31058 Wijziging van Boek 2 van het Burgerlijk Wetboek in verband met de aanpassing van de regeling voor besloten vennootschappen met beperkte aansprakelijkheid (Wet vereenvoudiging en flexibilisering bv-recht). De commissie wil - gelet op het feit dat eerder in andere commissies soortgelijke verzoeken zijn afgewezen - aan het College van Senioren het verzoek voorleggen dat de Voorzitter in overleg treedt met de regering om de toezegging te verkrijgen dat in voorkomende gevallen wel aan zo’n verzoek om een doorlopende wettekst gehoor zal worden gegeven. Vooralsnog wordt het voorbereidend onderzoek met betrekking tot de twee laatstgenoemde wetsvoorstellen opgeschort.
How about them apples?
July 1, 2010 as "D-day" for the bill to become operational seems less and less likely. Maybe, just maybe, 2011 is doable. Aah, the surprises of the legislative process...
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