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• Consumer insolvency in the European Union

  153-163

  Nikolett Zoványi

  Views:

  82

  Almost all modern civil legal systems respect property rights as a privileged and fundamental right, which means the property rights of individuals cannot be restricted or taken away without due process of law. In the case of insolvency proceedings, the person's right to property is violated, as the debtor is deprived of this right, at least partially. In such situations, the property rights of the debtor and the creditor are strained against each other, even to such level that the debtor's livelihood and alimentation is threatened by the satisfaction of the creditor's demands. During insolvency proceedings, we should restore the property rights relationship that was broken on the part of the creditor as a result of the debtor's behavior at the expense of the debtor's assets, ensuring that the debtor's interests are also protected, and that the proceedings take into account the interests of both parties. National lawmakers should, therefore, take several aspects into account to create the material and procedural legislation on the basis of which property of private individuals can also be subject to insolvency proceedings. Lawmakers should act in an environment where, due to the impact of globalization, it is no longer evident that the debtor and the creditor are citizens of the same country. This is the reason it is also important to examine how the European Union regulates insolvency proceedings in the case of consumer over-indebtedness in a manner that crosses national borders and still remains inside the Union.

• The special requirements applicable to the management of national assets, with a special respect to the requirement of transparency

  85-96.

  Zóra Zsófia Lehoczki

  Views:

  150

  The Fundamental Law of Hungary states that the property of the Hungarian State and of municipal governments shall be considered national assets. National assets shall be managed and protected for the purpose of serving the public interest, satisfying common needs and preserving natural resources, taking also into account the needs of future generations. Economic operators – such as companies - owned by the State or municipal governments shall conduct business prudently and independently, in accordance with the relevant legislation, under the requirements of legality, efficiency and effectiveness. The special requirements regarding the management and safeguarding are laid down in Act CXCVI of 2011 on National Assets (hereinafter: National Assets Act) and Act CVI of 2007 on State Property (hereinafter: State Property Act) also contains a few requirements in its preamble.

  Based on the above, national assets shall be managed and protected in a special way, compared to privately owned assets. Publicly owned enterprises play a very important role in the national economy, since they provide a significant amount of GDP, they employ numerous people, they usually provide public services and last but not least they manage public funds. As a consequence, these companies shall also manage their assets with respect to the special requirements. In our article, we introduce these requirements by examining their content and also their relationship towards each other.

  One of the most important requirements is transparency, since these enterprises manage public funds and according to the Fundamental Law, every organization managing public funds shall publicly account for the management of those funds. Public funds and national assets shall be managed according to the principles of transparency and of corruption-free public life. Data relating to public funds or to national assets shall be recognized as data of public interest. We lay a special emphasis on transparency by introducing the relating regulation and also by summarizing the most prominent statements of court decisions from the last few years. In their judgements the courts interpreted the requirement of transparency in connection with state-owned enterprises and the relationship between transparency and the protection of business secrets and business interests of the companies.