Zalar is to propose to the government tomorrow to request from the Constitutional Court to freeze the changes preventing major shareholders, managers or supervisors of insolvent companies from establishing new companies or act as supervisors or board members, unless they prove that they are not responsible for the company's trouble.

The changes, proposed by a group of MPs from the People's Party (SLS), were passed by the National Assembly in a re-vote on 2 November after they were vetoed by the upper chamber. The changes are to step into force on 29 November.

SLS head Radovan Žerjav responded to Zalar's announcement, noting that the changes were submitted to parliamentary procedure as soon as in March and that neither the Economy Ministry nor the Justice Ministry showed any interest to propose improvements.

He said it was up to the Constitutional Court to decide whether the provisions were unconstitutional, adding that the changes aimed at separating decent businessmen from those who are not.

However, at the meeting of the Directors' Association Borut Bratina of the Maribor Faculty of Economics and Business said that the ban on performing top managerial functions was in effect based only on the membership in the bodies of a troubled company and not on whether or not a person was responsible for getting the company in trouble.

Lawyer Uros Ilič finds the most problematic provisions that ban management members from performing their job after court-mandated debt restructuring is launched. He said that companies could lose their managements if owners fail to react in time.

Judge Katarina Vodopivec, who heads the Supreme Court task forces overseeing implementation of legislative changes, labelled the changes as chaotic and indicated that the period between their passage and implementation might be too short.

She also pointed to issues she finds most problematic. According to her, it was unclear which judge is to head delicensing procedures and court proceedings might be considerably delayed, as information needed in the processes is scattered across a number of data bases and records.