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Riccardo Ribera d’Alcala

BRUSSELS. – The EU wants to banish the word bankruptcy from the English language because it is too stigmatising, according to reports.Officials in Brussels want to see the term replaced with a more neutral phrase, such as “debt adjustment”.

The idea is part of wider reforms being considered to harmonise economic arrangements across the EU and make it easier for people who have run into financial problems to be given a second chance.

Riccardo Ribera d’Alcala, the EU’s Director-General for International Policies, said use of the word bankruptcy was too potent and made it difficult for people to rebuild their financial reputation.

In his report, D’Alcala said: “The use of stigmatising labels should be ended, and the pejorative term “bankruptcy” should be replaced with the more neutral ‘debt adjustment’.”

But such a move would see the phasing out of a word that has been in common parlance in the English word for more than 500 years.
It is thought the term derives from the Italian “banca rotta” meaning broken bench, which refers to the ancient custom of breaking a money changer’s bench to signify his insolvency.

Tory MP Brooks Newmark, who is a member of the Commons Treasury Select Committee told the Mail on Sunday: “This shows just how intellectually bankrupt – sorry debt adjusted – the European Union has become.”

D’Alcala’s report comes as the Commission looks to unify financial services across the EU. Among his other proposals are suggestions that banks should be penalised if inappropriate lending contributes to someone’s financial problems.

Other examples where the EU has attempted to interfere with language includes a recent recommendation that the words Miss and Mrs ought not to be used in certain circumstances because they were not considered to be politically correct. — The Telegraph.