The Cabinet of Ministers has registered a new draft law (No. 15004 dated 06.02.2026) in the parliament – on amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Bankruptcy Procedures regarding the introduction of simplified procedures for micro- and small-scale businesses. The Ministry of Economy called the draft law a second chance for small businesses. It was emphasized that it concerns two separate procedures:
a simplified reorganization procedure – for bona fide debtors who intend to restore solvency and continue their activities;
a simplified liquidation procedure – for enterprises and entrepreneurs who do not have sufficient assets and seek to complete their business in a civilized manner with minimal costs.
According to the government representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Taras Melnychuk, the draft law is aimed at providing bona fide debtors who are micro- and small-scale entrepreneurs with the opportunity to restore their solvency or be discharged from debts with minimal costs and in a short time.
The draft law proposes to supplement the Code of Bankruptcy and Credit Institutions with a new Book Six “Simplified Bankruptcy Procedures for Micro- and Small-scale Entrepreneurs”, which would introduce simplified bankruptcy procedures for micro- and small-scale entrepreneurs: a simplified reorganization procedure (for entrepreneurs who intend to restore their solvency) and a simplified liquidation procedure (for entrepreneurs who do not have sufficient assets to repay their accounts payable and intend to cease their activities). In particular, the draft law provides for:
to eliminate the mandatory procedure for property disposal and, accordingly, reduce the overall costs of conducting the bankruptcy procedure;
to establish the optional participation of the arbitration manager in the procedure (the arbitration manager is involved at the request of the debtor or creditor under the terms of the contract);
to eliminate the need to hold a general meeting of creditors and form a creditors’ committee (it is proposed to determine the number of creditors of the debtor as one of the criteria for the possibility of applying simplified procedures);
to establish short terms for conducting simplified procedures and clear conditions for the possibility of extending such terms;
to develop by the state bankruptcy body sample forms of documents for conducting simplified bankruptcy procedures;
to determine the criteria under which a debtor – a micro- and small-scale entrepreneur will be able to use such procedures.
Thus, debtors – micro-enterprises and small businesses on the date of filing an application for the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings under the simplified procedure must be registered in accordance with the procedure established by law as legal entities or individual entrepreneurs and have been engaged in business activities for at least the last 3 years and have accounts payable that:
for a micro-enterprise – does not exceed 2.5 million hryvnias to no more than 10 creditors;
for a small business – does not exceed 5 million hryvnias to no more than 15 creditors.
They also want to define another criterion for a debtor who intends to use simplified procedures, the absence of arrears in the payment of wages to employees, etc., informs T. Melnychuk.
