By Howard Morris, Morrison & Foerster LLP ( December 9, 2016, 1:03 PM EST) -- Did the European Commission read our article this summer? Because in November, harking back two years to its "recommendation," which most of the industry had forgotten, the commission, now by directive, will mandate European Union members to introduce, by 2018, very deep reforms to their national insolvency laws. Member states must put in place a legal framework enabling the early restructuring of businesses and to give honest but bust entrepreneurs a second chance. The commission is now going way beyond its previous Pan-European insolvency project of mutual recognition of insolvency procedures and entering the world of harmonizing laws. The aim is to trigger huge change in European cultural attitudes toward financial distress, to promote the saving of companies, and to tackle the great overhang of nonperforming loans across the community....