Piya Mukherjee
President of
INSOL Europe

Important update from our President 
 
Coronavirus, or COVID-19, has been sweeping the globe since late 2019. The World Health Organisation together with National State Centres for Disease Control have issued emergency advice and recommendations about the Coronavirus epidemic. The risk of transmitting airborne viruses is greatly increased in large crowds of people and National States around the world have gone into lockdown with travel having all but ceased because of it. 

In the circumstances, coupled with the uncertainty of how travel and social distancing is going to be regulated post lock down, the Executive of INSOL Europe feels that we cannot go ahead with our 2020 Annual Congress in Sorrento and has made the very difficult decision to cancel the event. This will be the first time in our 39 year history that we have had to do this. However we are all in unprecedented times and must take the health and safety of all involved in the congress very seriously. 
 
Next steps – How to turn a negative into a positive

We want to continue to add value to your membership benefits and understand that now, more than ever, you will want to share ideas and learn how other countries are handling this situation. With that in mind we will soon be offering you a free web series dedicated to COVID19, in the form of short webinars, incorporating the challenges faced by different jurisdictions in adapting the insolvency and restructuring  framework. Additionally, we are working on the production of a series of indepth virtual seminars to be launched later in the year. As soon as these are available we will notify you. 
 
In the meantime, on behalf of the Executive, we would like to thank you all for your continued support of INSOL Europe and offer our specific thanks to the Sorrento Technical Committee chaired by Giorgio Corno and Simeon Gilchrist who have worked tirelessly to produce an exceptional programme. We are also very grateful to all our sponsors, who continue to support INSOL Europe in these challenging times.   
 
Until we meet again! 
  
For and on behalf of the INSOL Europe Executive 
PIYA MUKHERJEE 
President

A tracker of insolvency reforms globally produced by Lexis Nexis in partnership with INSOL Europe is now available on our website.

We look at various countries which are expediting reforms to their restructuring and insolvency laws, temporarily suspending onerous insolvency law provisions, increasing limits for statutory demands, suspending enforcement powers and introducing other measures to deal with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. 

As the situation is rapidly evolving with more countries adding new measures daily, you should contact local lawyers in the relevant jurisdiction to check the current measures in force.

Our thoughts are with our colleagues around the world impacted by COVID-19.

The 'Conference on European Restructuring and Insolvency Law' (CERIL) has published an Executive Statement 2020-1 on COVID-19 and insolvency legislation which can be found on our Technical Resources website.

In the course of 2020, INSOL Europe plans to publish several guidance notes on Directive 2019/1023 with the aim of assisting EU Member States with: 

• putting the restructuring frameworks mandated by the Directive in place as soon as possible where no similar restructuring frameworks exist, in a manner that will be useful to their credit and other markets strained by the Covid-19 epidemic; or 
• where equivalent restructuring frameworks do already exist, refining and adapting them to the Directive.
   

The Guidance Notes are a product of the "Directive Project" which was launched in March 2019. For further information please visit our website.

Whilst the UK is taking proactive measures to aid ailing companies and businesses from the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak, one cannot help but wonder what the Cyprus government will do since the Examinership regime introduced as part of the rescue culture in 2015, has failed miserably. 

The UK may have been slower off the mark than many other countries in their fight against coronavirus, nevertheless, the authorities have now ramped up the speed and scale of the measures being implemented to protect their national health system and the economy. Chris Iacovides and Andri Antoniou report for INSOL Europe. Read the full story and other articles here.

If you would like the opportunity to have your Inside Story published in a future edition, please email Communications Manager, Paul Newson for details.

To browse our collection of back issues, please visit our website here.

The Richard Turton Award provides an educational opportunity for a qualifying participant to attend an INSOL Europe Annual Congress, all expenses paid.

The award is open to applicants who:

• Are a national of a developing or emerging nation;
• Work in or are actively studying insolvency & restructuring law and practice;
• Students satisfying the nationality requirement, but studying in another country, are also eligible to apply;
• Are under 35 years of age at the date of the application; and
• Have sufficient command of spoken English to benefit from the conference technical programme.

The successful applicant will be asked to write a paper of 3,000 words on a subject of insolvency and turnaround to be agreed with the panel. This paper will then be published in summary in one or more of the Member Associations' journals and on their websites.

For full details including the closing date for entries, visit our website here.

We are pleased to announce that we will be holding a joint conference with R3 and the Fraud Advisory Panel in London on 27 October 2020 at the Chartered Accountants’ Hall (Moorgate Place), London. For updates on this event, please visit our website.

The social programme will take full advantage of the alpine activities and vibrant nightlife of Chamonix, allowing attendees to strengthen their professional network in this fun and unusual setting.

Further information will be posted on the AIJA website when available.