25th anniversary of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency - Panel discussion on sharing experience across regions (15 July 2022)
On the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency, the UNCITRAL secretariat organized a panel discussion among stakeholders active in insolvency law reform to inform the Commission about lessons learned from recent inter-regional multilingual experience- featuring assessment exercises and knowledge-sharing in the area of insolvency law and the role that UNCITRAL legislative, guidance and reference materials and events played in that context.
Update: September 2022
Ireland approves opt in to technical amendments to the European Insolvency Regulation Annexes
More information available at: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2022-05-11/17/
Update: May 2022
Interactive EBRD Business Reorganisation Report now available
· Results and Observations – Tuesday 1 February, 2pm to 3:15pm GMT.
· Current Trends and Reform Priorities – Wednesday 2 February, 2pm to 3:15pm GMT.
· Regional Perspectives and Next Steps – Thursday 3 February, 12pm to 1:15pm GMT.
More information available here.
Update: January 2022
Updated Annexes of the Regulation (EU) 2015/848 on insolvency proceedings now published
The Regulation (EU) 2021/2260 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 2021 amending Regulation (EU) 2015/848 on insolvency proceedings to replace its Annexes A and B has entered into force on 9th January 2022 (OJ L 455 of 20.12.2021, p. 4-14).
‘In October 2020, the Netherlands notified the Commission of recent changes in its national insolvency law which introduced a new preventive insolvency scheme, as well as new types of insolvency practitioners. That notification was followed in December 2020 by notifications from Italy, Lithuania, Cyprus and Poland relating to recent changes in their national law which introduced new types of insolvency proceedings or insolvency practitioners. Following the submission by the Commission of its proposal for an amending Regulation, further notifications were received from Germany, Hungary and Austria relating to recent changes in their national law which introduced new types of insolvency proceedings or insolvency practitioners. Subsequently, Italy clarified the date of entry into force of its new provisions on insolvency and restructuring which it had notified to the Commission in December 2020, and notified an amendment to a previous notification. Those new types of insolvency proceedings and insolvency practitioners comply with the requirements set out in Regulation (EU) 2015/848 and make it necessary to amend Annexes A and B to that Regulation.’
The text of the Regulation (EU) 2021/2260 is available here.
Update: January 2022
EU update on NPLs
The Directive (EU) 2021/2167 of 24 November 2021 on Credit Servicers and Credit Purchasers relating to ‘Non-Performing Loans’ (NPLs) (entry into force on 28 December 2021) is available at: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2021/2167/oj
Update: January 2022
A new version of the Insolvency Registers Interconnection search interface is now available here.
The EU-wide interconnection of national insolvency registers (IRI 2.0) has been developed in accordance with Article 25 of Regulation (EU) 2015/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
It allows searches for insolvent debtors, either natural or legal persons, within the EU Member States registers that completed the implementation according to the aforementioned regulation.
Please note that as of September 1, 2021 the new system will be completely integrated into the e-Justice Portal and will replace the current version based on voluntary participation under the Insolvency Registers Interconnection search (IRI 1.0).
Update: 31 August 2021
During the course of 2021, two CERIL Working parties have published statements and reports.
(1) CERIL Statement and Report on identifying annex actions under Article 6(1) of the European Insolvency Regulation 2015
As a consequence, to overcome the existing level of uncertainty with time-consuming and costly disputes in civil proceedings, especially their characterisation as ‘annex action’, CERIL encourages litigators and courts to use the concise reference work as set out in its Report. The Statement and Report were prepared by Prof. Stephan Madaus & Prof. Em. Bob Wessels (Reporters) and Dr. Chiara Lunetti (Associate Researcher).
(2) CERIL Statement on EU group coordination proceedings
In the CERIL Statement, CERIL identifies the fact that the EU ‘group coordination proceedings’ system is not used in practice, resulting in inefficient administration of insolvency proceedings relating to different companies forming part of a group of companies. In addition to the Statement, the reporters present an annex comprising an overview of the pros and cons of the current framework for EU group coordination proceedings. CERIL feels that time is ripe to undertake specific steps to develop proposals for the modification of the current rules in order to enable group coordination proceedings to use their full potential.
This Statement and Annex were prepared by Prof. Andreas Geroldinger, Dr. Myriam Mailly, Prof. Stephan Madaus, and Nora Wouters.
update: July-August 2021
EU Proposal for a Regulation replacing Annexes A and B to the EU Insolvency Regulation
Amendments follow notifications to the European Commission from the Netherlands (November 2020), Italy, Lithuania, Cyprus and Poland (December 2020) in relation to the recent changes of their domestic insolvency law.
This proposal is open for feedback for a minimum period of 8 weeks (17 May 2021 - 12 July 2021 (midnight Brussels time). INSOL Europe members can then share their views on this proposed EU legislative Act.
More information is available here.
update: 20 May 2021
Best Practices Guidelines For Judicial Cooperation in EU Cross-Border Insolvency Proceedings
These guidelines aim at providing some substantial and procedural guidance to those professionals under the duty to communicate and coordinate insolvency proceedings in the context of the EU Regulation 2015/848 of 20 May 2015. In particular, these guidelines promote non-binding best practices in terms of cooperation and coordination between courts themselves and between courts and insolvency practitioners appointed in main and/or secondary insolvency proceedings, including in case of corporate groups.
These guidelines remain also the objectives and the main provisions of the European Insolvency Regulation Recast all taking into account other recently formulated standards in this area, including the INSOL Europe European Communication and Cooperation Guidelines for Cross-Border Insolvency (2007), the UNCITRAL Practice Guide on Cross-Border Insolvency Cooperation (2009), the UNCITRAL Model Law on Enterprise Group Insolvency with Guide to Enactment, Chapter 2 (2019), and other International Principles or Guidelines including those adopted by the International Insolvency Institute and the American Law Institute.
These guidelines were prepared by the Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature (ENM, France), in partnership with the Institut de Formation Judiciaire-Institut voor Gerechtelijke Opleiding (Belgium), the Consejo General del Poder Judicial-Escuela Judicial (CGPJ-EJ, Spain) and the Krajowa Szkoła Sądownictwa i Prokuratury (KSSIP, Poland) as part of the ‘EU cross-border insolvency proceedings: judicial inter-professional cooperation for an effective application of the recast EU insolvency Regulation’ Project (2019-2021).
This publication is also closely related to the professional training prepared by these training institutions and held in February and December 2020, with a view to facilitate the work of judges and practitioners dealing with such issues. The training was developed, in addition to the above actors, with the support of the French Conseil National des Administrateurs judiciaires et Mandataires judiciaires and was funded by the Justice Programme of the European Union (2014-2020).
These guidelines are available in English, French, Polish and Spanish.
A must-have product for any professionals involved in EU Cross-border insolvency proceedings!
Update: 9 March 2021
We are pleased to announce LexisPSL R&I’s latest collaboration with INSOL Europe. In this joint project the INSOL Europe's country coordinators have provided answers to key questions on recognition by EU Member States of insolvency or restructuring proceedings commenced in a third country, such as the UK (post Brexit).
The questions
The first question considers whether the UNCITRAL Model law on Insolvency has been adopted in that particular country and, if not, whether there are any plans to consider its adoption. Application of the UNCITRAL Model law by a country will greatly improve visibility on the process and likelihood of the third country gaining recognition of its relevant insolvency/restructuring proceeding.
The second question considers how each country will recognise insolvency/restructuring proceedings commenced in a third country (ie a country which is not an EU Member State, such as the UK (post-Brexit), the US, Japan, Australia or Canada), which may be through the Lugano Convention, Hague Convention, Rome I or other private international law rules.
The third question looks at how this approach would apply specifically to the example of seeking recognition of proceedings commenced in a third country (the UK) in respect of an English Part 26 scheme of arrangement or Part 26A restructuring plan.
A consolidated table including the replies from INSOL Europe appears here and the articles accredited to INSOL Europe are reproduced on the INSOL Europe website here.
Update: 9 March 2021
Relevant information published by the European Commission on the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (31 December 2020) remains available at:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/relations-united-kingdom/eu-uk-trade-and-cooperation-agreement_en
We are pleased to let you know that the European Commission has published the public consultation on the New EU Insolvency initiative.
Feedback period
18 December 2020 - 26 March 2021 (midnight Brussels time)
Who can respond ?
All stakeholders with an interest in insolvency law: creditors of all kinds (including employees), debtors, insolvency practitioners or judges but also legal professionals, public authorities, the representatives of the judiciary, research and academia.
Share your views !
The initiative is complementary to the Directive on Restructuring and Insolvency, and – consequently – focuses on aspects of insolvency laws that were not addressed there.
Do not hesitate therefore to share your views on a range of issues including the liability and duties of directors of companies in the vicinity of insolvency; the status and duties of insolvency practitioners; the ranking of claims; avoidance actions; identification and preservation of assets belonging to the insolvency estate or core procedural notions.
You can fill in the online questionnaire which is available here.
Update: 14 January 2021
Other EU documents of interest in relation to the new EU insolvency initiative:
- Individual submissions received by the European Commission on the consultation on the Inception Impact Assessment are available at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12592-Enhancing-the-convergence-of-insolvency-laws-
- CMU Action Plan which was published on 24 September 2020 at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/200924-capital-markets-union-action-plan_en
The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement
Relevant information published by the European Commission on the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (31 December 2021) is available at:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/relations-united-kingdom/eu-uk-trade-and-cooperation-agreement_en
Update: 4 January 2021
Launch of the tracker on the Implementation of the EU Restructuring and Insolvency Directive
The tracker on the implementation of the EU Directive on Restructuring and Insolvency is available here.This tracker will be regularly updated in the months to come.
Preliminary results of the EBRD Insolvency Assessment on Business Reoganisation (as at December 2020)
At the first session of the INSOL Europe EECC Online Conference which took place on 3 December 2020, Catherine Bridge-Zoller from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) shared with the audience the preliminary results of the Insolvency Assessement on Business Reorganisation.
The PPT presentation is available here.
Final results are expected at the end of the first quarter 2021. We'll keep you updated in due course.
Update: 19 December 2020
JCOERE Project team & UCC School of Law Webinar 'Corporate Rescue and Legal Supports for Businesses Post COVID-19'
The webinar which took place on Friday 27th November, convened by the JCOERE Project team and the UCC School of Law, consisted of three short panel sessions on preventive restructuring processes in Ireland including corporate rescue (recent developments in Examinerships and Schemes of Arrangement), recent European developments, particularly the UK and the Netherlands, in addition to legal supports for businesses post COVID-19 including prospects for a new rescue process for small companies.
For more information on the technical programme or on the broad range of speakers discussing these themes or if you just want to watch the webinar video in full, please click here.
More information on the JCOERE Project at UCC, led by Professor Irene Lynch FANNON, is available here or on Twitter at @JCOEREProject
Please note that the JCOERE Project event was funded by the European Union's Justice Programme 2014-2020. The content of the presentations represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information they contain.
Update: 09 December 2020 
Judicial Co-Operation supporting Economic Recovery in Europe (JCOERE) Project Reports
The objective of the JCOERE Project is to ‘Enhance Judicial Co-operation under the Recast Insolvency Regulation (EU 2015/848) supporting preventive restructuring (rescue) processes for European businesses.’ The emphasis is on the obligations imposed on European Judiciary by the Recast Regulation to co-operate in the context of cross-border insolvency with particular emphasis on preventive restructuring.
The project is coordinated by University College Cork (Ireland) with partners from the Università degli Studi di Firenze (Italy), University Titu Maiorescu (Romania) and INSOL Europe. The project runs from October 2018 – December 2020. JCOERE is funded by the EU Commission Project 800807- DG JUST- JUST-JCOO-AG-2017.
The outcomes of the Project Team have been published in two reports:
JCOERE Report 1 examines substantive challenges that may arise from the scope of the implementation of preventive restructuring frameworks introduced in compliance with the minimum standards set by the Preventive Restructuring Directive 2019/1023, or as in the Irish case of Examinership, in frameworks already existing in some jurisdictions. Its analysis relies in part on country reports from 11 different EU jurisdictions in answer to a questionnaire distributed at the beginning of the project. Fundamentally, this first Report presents the context in which the project’s investigation of court cooperation in cross-border restructuring arises by highlighting specific substantive areas in which there may be tension between certain member states, resulting in obstacles to cooperation.
JCOERE Report 2 then analyses the obligations arising from the EU Insolvency Regulation and its Recast imposed on courts in EU Member States to cooperate in cross-border insolvency and restructuring matters. This second report also benchmarks judicial utilisation and awareness of best practice guidelines on court cooperation through the analysis of the results of a judicial survey distributed throughout the judiciaries of all EU members states along with feedback during in-person events with various judicial networks. This report also considers questions of judicial and legal culture and how this also impacts mutual trust and effective cooperation amongst the Member States. It concludes with reflections upon the findings of both reports and what the findings may say about the broader question of legal harmonisation and integration.
The JCOERE has also put in place an interactive dataset of case studies which is available here.
More information on the JCOERE Project at UCC, led by Professor Irene Lynch FANNON, is available here or on Twitter at @JCOEREProject
Please note that the JCOERE Project was funded by the European Union's Justice Programme 2014-2020. The content of the reports represents the views of the authors only and is their sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information they contain.
Update: 09 December 2020
EU Commission publishes a revised notice to stakeholders in the field of civil justice and private international law in view of UK’s withdrawal from the EU
The European Commission has published a revised "Notice to stakeholders concerning the withdrawal of the United Kingdom and EU rules in the field of civil justice and private international law".
The new document replaces the notice to stakeholders, published on 18 January 2019, and the Q&A document, published on 11 April 2019.
You can consult the new document here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/civil-justice-judicial-cooperation-civil-and-commercial-matters
Update: 04 September 2020
New EBRD Insolvency Assessment on Business Reoganisation
The Assessment aims to provide detailed guidance on legislative gaps to address an expected increase in businesses needing to use formal restructuring procedures following the coronavirus pandemic.
Structured as a questionnaire, the assessment will provide an up-to-date map of restructuring frameworks across the EBRD regions in Europe, Asia and Africa. It aims to provide an overview of the options within pre-insolvency and insolvency frameworks across the economies where the EBRD engages, but, for benchmarking purposes, the consultation is also open to countries where the EBRD does not at present invest.
The results of the assessment as well as a report summarising its findings will be made publicly available online and will also be published in due course on the INSOL Europe website.
The survey which is available in English, French and Russian will be open for public consultation until 31 October 2020 is available here.
The press release is accessible here.
The recording of the virtual discussion and launch of the EBRD assessment on the state of business reorganisation frameworks (Webinar of 8th September) is accessible here as well as an article written by Catherine Bridge Zoller, Senior Counsel at EBRD here.
We encourage all INSOL Europe members to participate to the EBRD Assessment given the fact that the EBRD has decided to extend the scope of the questionnaire also to EU non-EBRD countries.
Make your voice heard !
update: 14 September 2020
Revised version of the EBRD core insolvency principles
The EBRD has recently published a revised version of the EBRD core insolvency principles, in relation to which INSOL Europe provided substantive feedback working to a tight deadline during the Summer.
The consultation within INSOL Europe which was coordinated by Paul Omar, assisted by Niculina Somlea and Myriam Mailly saw responses forthcoming from 23 jurisdictions represented within our organisation.The revised principles as at September 2020 are available here.
update: 1st September 2020
European e-Justice Portal - Impact of the COVID-19 virus on the justice field
Insolvency law
The COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdown of large parts of the economy has led to a drastic drop in the cash-flow of companies and to a threat of mass insolvencies.
The table available here (under point 1. CIVIL LAW, subsection: insolvency law) provides an overview of measures taken by Member States in order to cope with this situation and to prevent insolvencies of viable businesses caused by this temporary shock. Such measures may concern:
- substantive insolvency law, including the suspension of the duty (for debtors) and the possibility (for creditors) to file for insolvency or moratoria on the enforcement of claims or the termination of contracts,
- procedural insolvency law relating to the interruption of court proceedings, time-periods and various types of time-limitations, and
- additional measures directly or indirectly related to insolvency situations of businesses, including, where indicated by Member States, wider measures helping entrepreneurs to get over economic difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Please note that the aforementioned table will be regularly updated since some measures of EU Member States are still under adoption.
We thank the European Commission for sharing this information with the EU Study Group and the INSOL Europe members.
Useful links related to measures taken in the COVID-19 context
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Tracker of insolvency reforms globally (as at 2 July 2020) produced by Lexis Nexis in partnership with INSOL Europe
The tracker is available here.
Full Free-access articles are available here.
COVID-19 Factsheet (as at 8 May 2020) is accessible here.
COVID-19 Factsheet (as at 1st June 2020) is accessible here.
Please note that up-to-date versions are also accessible here.
We thank Frank Heemann (Rechtsanwalt, Partner at bnt Heemann APB in Vilnius) for sharing this information with the EU Study Group and the INSOL Europe members.
Model Standstill Agreement may assist in COVID-19 time
Model standstill/tolling agreement available here.Authors: Prof. Jonathan Lipson and Norman Powell
Published under the auspices of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association (ABA)
Reported by Prof. Dr. Bob Wessels on his blog on 17 April 2020. Thank you Bob !
More information available here.
