Piya Mukherjee
President of
INSOL Europe

Our iconic annual event will be online this year. It will consist of a series of four sessions which will take place throughout October under the heading 'Towards a New World'. Sessions will feature a keynote speaker and two live panels with a hand-picked selection of international experts speaking on a range of highly relevant and important topics.

Registration will be free for members or €100+VAT per weekly session for non-members.
A discount of 25% will be given to non-members booking onto all 4 sessions.

Plus, join our free Young Members Group Wine Tasting Event when you register!

If you are already a member of INSOL Europe aged 45 or below, we welcome you to join our virtual wine tasting session on Thursday 29 October from 17:00–18:00 CET. Simply select this optional extra on the registration page and we’ll post 6 small bottles of carefully selected wines straight to your door, log into the session and you'll be guided through the tasting process. The perfect way to unwind from the comfort of your home whilst networking online with like-minded professionals. Please note, spaces are limited on a first come first served basis!

Further information
If you have any queries regarding the online conference or wine tasting event, please contact Event Manager, Harriet Taylor.

This year the Academic Forum's Annual Conference will be held online with two highly relevant papers by Professors Horst Eidenmüller and Kristin Van Zwieten, both of University of Oxford, and by Lydia Tsioli of King's College London. 

A fee of €50+VAT will be charged for non-member participants who are not full-time academics.

Further information: www.insol-europe.org/events

If you have any queries, please contact Event Manager, Harriet Taylor.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has launched an insolvency assessment on formal business reorganisation procedures. The survey is being carried out in partnership with INSOL Europe and other international organisations working in the field of insolvency law reform, such as UNCITRAL, the International Law Development Organisation, INSOL International and the European Commission.

A formal event, at which Piya Mukherjee, INSOL Europe President, spoke, was held on 8 September to launch the survey. The purpose of the survey, writes Catherine Bridge Zoller, Senior Counsel at the EBRD, is to help highlight areas where a country’s legal or institutional framework needs improvement. 

In the current economic environment, the EBRD assessment is of utmost importance, as businesses across Europe and near countries have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. There is general agreement that the crisis is particularly hard on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), because of their small operating margins and lack of reserves to withstand the downturn in business activity without government support.

The crisis affects all economies, whether emerging, developing or developed, but is especially challenging for emerging economies with limited resources and without a developed legal infrastructure that supports business.

The survey is available in English, French and Russian and will be open for public consultation until 31 October 2020.

An update on the EBRD Assesement by Catherine Bridge Zoller can be found here.

On 3 and 10 December 2020 we will be holding our first Eastern European Countries' Committee online conference 'Tectonic Changes in Eastern European Insolvency', bringing together fresh insight and exceptional speakers.

As the evolving impacts of COVID-19 ripple through our communities, we are all facing unforeseen challenges. With a renewed spotlight on insolvency, gaining fresh insight and real life examples will help us, as insolvency professionals, stay on top of our game, enhance business resiliency, ensure business continuity and most importantly, stay connected. Watch, listen, and ask questions from the convenience of your home or office, no travel needed. Add the dates to your calendar and join us!

Further information: www.insol-europe.org/events

If you have any queries, please contact Event Manager, Harriet Taylor.

The Estonian Ministry of Justice commissioned a group of insolvency experts to provide an expert opinion about the implementation of Directive (EU) 2019/1023 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019. The expert group consisted of insolvency specialists from different occupations: attorneys-at-law, insolvency trustees, judges, academics and representatives of banking. 

This article by Anto Kasak (Partner, Kasak and Lepikson Law Firm; Lecturer, Tartu University, Estonia) and his team summarises the aspects of the study, which might be interesting for other European countries facing similar issues in the transposition process. 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.

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.

Harmonisation of Insolvency and Restructuring Laws
in the EU

We are pleased to announce that papers from the INSOL Europe Academic Forum Annual Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, 25-26 September 2019, have now been published. The book is published online and is available as a free download for members.

Visit our website to download your copy.

Please note, you must log-in to the INSOL Europe website with your membership details to access the download.

Over two days (18-19 September) in Zagreb, the capital of the EU’s latest member state, 75 delegates attending in person and online were welcomed to a high-level discussion of issues and themes in relation to applicable law in the context of cross-border insolvency proceedings.

The conference stemmed from a collaboration between the European Commission DG Justice and Consumers, the Croatian Presidency of the EU, the Ministry of Justice and Administration of Croatia, the University of Zagreb and INSOL Europe.

The conference team in Zagreb

The purpose of the conference was to elicit contributions and a sense of any consensus on the desirability of embarking on a project in this area prior to an UNCITRAL colloquium on the same theme scheduled for Vienna this December.

Across the conference’s seven sessions, experts from around the world gave their views on particular issues connected to this offshoot of the private international law sphere. From rules on rights in rem, set-off, contracts of employment and current contracts, to jurisdiction and determination of the appropriate law for avoidance actions, issues canvassed began with substantive rules.

Moving on to procedure and policy, the debate covered how choice of law determines the extent of protection for local interests and the scope of interaction between proceedings and arbitral instances, pending lawsuits and enforcement processes elsewhere. Recognition of foreign insolvency-related judgments and insolvency representatives also featured, as did the procedural content of the lex fori in the field of the claims process. Mention of Brexit and its inevitable impact on cross-border cases was also made in passing.

The conference was rounded off with a panel canvassing the views of international organisations involved in the reform arena and those representing insolvency practice. The World Bank, UNCITRAL and Hague Conference gave updates on work in the general insolvency law arena as well as specific experience of applicable law issues. With views from practice provided by INSOL International and INSOL Europe, the overall sense was that developments in this area would be welcomed, if grounded on strong policy reasons and firm consensus for a future rule-building exercise.

Paul Omar, INSOL Europe Technical Research Coordinator

We are pleased to announce that we will be holding a joint conference with R3 and the Fraud Advisory Panel on 2 & 3 February 2021 (new dates for this online event). 

This online conference will focus on topics related to global financial crime, tackling rogue companies, UK compensation orders, asset tracing, cryptocurrency fraud, and digital forensics, with speakers from international police agencies, insolvency and fraud specialists, academics and many more.

For updates on this event, please visit our website.