Piya Mukherjee
President of
INSOL Europe

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The COVID Coffee Breaks are free for all to view, so please do share the coming invitations with your colleagues and friends. Take a break, have a coffee and enjoy the COVID Coffee Break!

The COVID Coffee Breaks are brought to you in partnership with LexisNexis with whom INSOL Europe is honoured to collaborate on the COVID-19 tracker of insolvency reforms globally.

We are very pleased to present the new logo of INSOL Europe which you can see at the top of this email and on our website.

The INSOL Europe logo had not been updated since the turn of the century and we have long considered it due for an overhaul. The map in the logo has always been a contentious issue with subtle changes over the years, but there comes a point where the design will not represent our future goals no matter how much tweaking and finessing it is given.

Since our new website was launched in 2015 and had been revamped several times to keep up with new focus of our organisation, the logo was showing its age in the new digital world. It was definitely time for a re-brand!

The new logo has a strong graphical connection to the old design. The map of Europe in the new logo is replaced by a blue dot positioned where Europe is generally shown on globes. This represents INSOL Europe at the heart of the network on many different levels, whether geographically or metaphorically.

The new logo will be rolled out on all our materials and will be publishing usage guidelines soon. 

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.

Italy’s national lockdown in response to the COVID-19 health emergency has been in place since 9 March 2020. Several contingency rules aimed at containing the economic and financial impact of the related lockdown were quickly adopted, affecting various area of law related to business activity, as company and insolvency law.

This Inside Story means to point out the most relevant changes involving insolvency law, on the premise that these provisions could be further modified or integrated due to the general uncertainty of the length (and after effects) of the emergency situation.

Domenico Benincasa, Francesca Burigo, and Carlo Ghia, 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.

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.

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 invited to do a short presentation during the INSOL Europe webinar on 2 October 2020 and attend the 2021 INSOL Europe Annual Congress in Dublin, Ireland, all expenses paid.

He or she will also 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.

Please note, this event will take place on-line if we are not able to meet in person.

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.