several liability in respect of the debts of the firm

It provides that a cooperative in its Articles of Association must choose whether it takes the form of ‘a limited liability company’ (i.e. shareholders' losses cannot go beyond their capital investment) or of an ‘unlimited liability company’ (i.e. shareholders are personally liable for the debt of the company and can therefore lose more than their capital investment).

However, analysis of the progress made in the light of the 4 common objectives reveals that: (a) the measures concerned with promoting access to the labour market have, in tandem with the NAP/empl, achieved considerable success; (b) pursuit of the reform of the social protection system has not affected attainment of the goals inherent in the Minimum Guaranteed Income scheme (scheme combining financial benefits with a socio-occupational integration plan); (c) the aim of having all persons in a situation of exclusion sign a "social integration contract" within one year was too ambitious and was difficult both to implement and to evaluate ...[+++], since it requires multisectoral involvement and since the universe of individuals to be covered remains undefined (the same comment applies to the individualised follow-up of children and young persons within three months); (d) the setting up of a national social welfare helpline has made it easier for certain priority groups to obtain information and a rapid response to their problems; (e) the "Urban Social Development Contracts" and the "Rural Areas and Social Development" project, which were aimed at tackling the problems of the regional nature of exclusion, were abandoned for budgetary and policy reasons; (f) as regards mobilising stakeholders in the process, the Interministerial Monitoring Committee, set up expressly to monitor the NAPincl, operated only intermittently and its composition had to be altered following the change of government, hence its impact as an institutional co-ordination forum has been established only gradually; as regards civil society, the vague reference to the Co-operation and Social Solidarity Pact and the project for the creation of an NGOs Forum illustrates the low degree of involvement of these players.

The contracting authority should also be able to exclude an economic operator where a natural or legal person assuming unlimited liability for the debts of that economic operator is bankrupt or in a similar situation of insolvency or where that natural or legal person fails to comply with its obligations to pay social security contributions or taxes, where such situations impact the financial situation of the economic operator.

In view of the government's growing borrowing needs, the exposure of the budget to foreign exchange risk and risks stemming from contingent liabilities, debt dynamics is a major matter of concern.