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April 2026

Greetings Friends and Colleagues!

As I reach the halfway mark in my Presidency (which is hard to believe), the past month has underlined, once again, that European insolvency and restructuring law does not stand still. Legislative momentum has continued in Brussels with the publication - and rapid political endorsement - of the EU Directive harmonising certain aspects of insolvency law, most notably in relation to pre packs, asset tracing and creditors’ committees. For practitioners, this represents another step towards greater predictability in cross border cases, while also raising very real questions about implementation, market practice and the interaction with existing national frameworks.

Alongside this legislative progress, recent weeks have reinforced that convergence at EU level does not eliminate complexity on the ground. Courts across Europe continue to grapple with the practical limits of cross border coordination, from enforcement and asset tracing to recognition and timing. In parallel, developments in English restructuring plan - particularly judicial scrutiny of fairness and value allocation - remain closely watched by European stakeholders. Taken together, these trends serve as a reminder that while the framework is evolving, outcomes still turn on execution, evidence and often the nuanced exercise of judicial discretion.

Meanwhile the geopolitics continue to change, it seems, daily, with the latest European upset seen in Hungary with the ousting of Viktor Orban who held power for 16 years, in favour of the more centrist right Peter Magyar.

In the UK next month, we will see local elections and an upset for the two formerly main parties is predicted in many areas, at a time when smaller, newer, parties such as the Green Party and Reform have pushed ahead in many polls. The UK may end up with more coalition politics if any of the parties can ever agree on anything other than that all the others are terrible! Turnout is traditionally very low for local elections c. 30-35%.

Sometimes it seems that Alice is firmly through the Looking Glass. The trouble seems to be there are many contenders at home and abroad, for the role of the Mad Hatter.

Against all the moveable backdrops, INSOL Europe has remained firmly focused on facilitating informed, practical debate. Over the last three months, our joint seminar with Réseau CAP in Brussels brought together judges, policymakers and practitioners to explore group restructurings across jurisdictions - an area of growing complexity and significance. That event exemplified INSOL Europe’s unique ability to convene the right expertise, at the right time, on the issues that matter most to our members.

Looking ahead, with further conferences and academic exchanges on the horizon, INSOL Europe will continue to play a central role in shaping the conversation - ensuring that legal development is matched by practical insight, professional dialogue and collaboration across Europe. We are advanced in our preparation for the Annual Congress in Vilamoura.

The last month or so has also seen valuable engagement at subject specific level. In March, INSOL Europe participated in the CNAJMJ hosted colloquium in Paris - led by member, Christophe Thévenot - examining environmental concerns in insolvency proceedings, an area where legal doctrine, public policy and commercial reality increasingly intersect. The quality of discussion reflected the growing urgency of these issues for courts and practitioners alike. At the same time, we have taken the difficult but pragmatic decision to cancel the planned EECC Conference in Cyprus. While disappointing, this allows us to protect the quality and focus of our programme, and to redeploy energy and resources where they will deliver the greatest value for members. INSOL Europe remains committed to thoughtful curation of events that respond to real professional need.

Frances Coulson
President, INSOL Europe

Frances Coulson
President of
INSOL Europe

This issue is kindly
sponsored by:

DLA Piper is a global law
firm with lawyers located
in more than 40 countries
throughout the world.
www.dlapiper.com

Academic Forum Conference 2026: Call for Papers

The Academic Forum of INSOL Europe will be hosting its 22nd Annual Conference in Vilamoura, Portugal, on Wednesday 14 – Thursday 15 October 2026, immediately prior to INSOL Europe's Annual Congress which takes place in Vilamoura from 15-18 October 2026. Expressions of interest are invited for the delivery of research papers and a presentation within the overall Academic Conference theme: 

“New horizons:
Insolvency III, winding-up of insolvent EU Inc. and beyond”

The Academic Forum encourages submissions on all relevant topics touching on the theme, dealing with substantive, procedural, or theoretical topics, with a preference for comparative, multi-jurisdictional, and cross-border topics that will appeal to a mixed European audience.

In line with the practice established in our past academic conferences, the intention for the autumn conference is to have research papers that challenge existing approaches, stimulate debate and ask, and attempt to answer, comparative and interdisciplinary questions within the above broadly defined theme. Accordingly, proposals are invited that do more than just outline a topic of interest in respect of any given jurisdiction, but seek to understand, analyse and critique the fundamentals of insolvency and restructuring systems in ways that are relevant across jurisdictions and across fields of academic inquiry.

Expressions of interest in delivering papers within the conference theme should indicated via the online submission form by 31 May 2026.

Full details of the submission process can be found here.

The Academic Forum is pleased to acknowledge the generous sponsorship
of Edwin Coe LLP and their ongoing support of our activities

Vilamoura Academic Conference Technical Committee Announced

We are very pleased to announce that alongside Dr. Professor Jessica Schmidt LL.M as the new Academic Forum Chair, we are now able to announce the full Technical Committee for the Annual Academic Conference in Vilamoura.

The local co-chair will be Catarina Serra, who is well known to INSOL Europe in various roles, and is currently a Judge and Associate Professor of Law with Aggregation, Supreme Court of Justice of Portugal.

The Technical Committee is completed with the addition of:

Emilie Ghio, Lecturer in Corporate and Insolvency Law, University of Edinburgh
Giulia Ballerini, Assistant Professor of Business and Insolvency Law, Università degli Studi di Padova, Chair of INSOL Europe YANIL
Eugenio Vaccari, Associate Professor of Law, Royal Holloway, University of London
Gerard McCormack, Professor of International Business Law, University of Leeds

Visit our website for further information about the Academic Forum and the forthcoming event.

Update on National Insolvency Statistics: Estonia

Sorainen’s Head of Insolvency & Restructuring and Counsel Mari Agarmaa Jentson, together with Assistant Lawyer Eliza Belova have summarised the recent insolvency statistics in Estonia.

After three difficult years, the Estonian economy is showing early signs of recovery and inflation has begun to moderate. However, this gradual improvement has not resulted in significant changes in the insolvency landscape, which has remained broadly stable.

Between 2012 and 2025, Estonia recorded an average of 141 bankruptcies of legal entities per year. In 2025, the number of bankruptcies was 154, representing a 4% decrease compared with 2024. As of 31 December 2025, assetless insolvencies resulted in an estimated €73.5 million in creditor losses, including €18 million from cases initiated in earlier years.

Business activity remained dynamic. In 2025, 27,394 new legal entities were registered, bringing the total number of registered entities to 366,505 as of 11 February 2026. Of these, 643 entities had been declared bankrupt as of that date. Court statistics were similarly steady, with 1,973 bankruptcy petitions (for legal persons) and insolvency petitions (for natural persons) filed in 2025, compared with 2,059 petitions in 2024.

Preventive and restructuring measures remained relatively unpopular. Courts opened only 20 reorganisation proceedings in 2025, compared with 38 in 2024, while debt restructuring proceedings also saw limited use, with 8 cases in 2025 compared with 5 in 2024. A persistent challenge in Estonia continues to be the late filing of bankruptcy petitions, which often leaves estates without sufficient assets to cover the costs of proceedings.

Overall, Estonia’s insolvency landscape remained stable throughout 2025, despite the first signs of economic recovery. It remains to be seen whether the improving macroeconomic outlook will translate into noticeable changes in insolvency trends in 2026.

Relevant updated links are published on our website here.

INSIDE Story: Crisis in the Serbian Oil Industry

The Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) represents one of the largest energy companies in the region. NIS produces petroleum products, petroleum derivatives, petrochemical products, natural gas, electricity and operates in Serbia and the region, where through its subsidiaries it carries out fuel retail and other related activities.

In 2023, NIS realized an income of 3.370 billion euros. That makes the business of NIS very relevant from a regulatory, economic and geopolitical point of view. Since 2008, the major shareholder of the NIS has been the Russian company “Gazprom Neft” and a minority share is still held by the Republic of Serbia.

The outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February 2022 has dramatically changed the business environment for NIS. Although the Republic of Serbia has not introduced any sanctions on the Russian Federation, NIS operates in a market surrounded by European Union countries and depends on their infrastructure. In January 2025, the United States officially introduced sanctions against NIS, as a Russian controlled company. The US required not a simple reduction or exit of the Russian owners, but a complete withdrawal of Russian interests from the NIS. The company itself was allowed to continue to operate regularly, but under the condition of starting preparations for a corporate restructuring through ownership transformation. However, until now, no such plan has been adopted or signed.

The Serbian government does not want to oppose the Russians, especially because of their support in its foreign policy, while the Russian owner does not want to sell its share package, even though NIS does not play a significant role in its portfolio. The company Delta Oil from Croatia was first unofficially mentioned as a possible new owner, but then Hungarian MOL and ADNOC from the United Arab Emirates appeared in official negotiations. In the meantime, NIS has lost more than one year without capital restructuring. Finally, the US Department of the Treasury, through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), withdrew its license and NIS had to suspend production.

Read the full story here by Djuro Djuric, Associate Professor in Business Law and International Commercial Law, Faculty of Business Studies and Law, University “Union – Nikola Tesla”, Belgrade, Serbia.

Reasons to renew your Membership in 2026

Get DISCOUNTED RATES for our flagship Annual Congress, Academic Conference, Eastern European Conference and joint events.
Become part of our unique and RENOWNED COMMUNITY where you will have opportunities to network with over 1350 members from 50 countries.
Access our MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY where you can search for fellow members by name, jurisdiction, profession and expertise.
Get in touch with your Council member or C OUNTRY CO-ORDINATOR to make deeper connections within and outside your own country.
Leverage your network by joining our ever-growing LinkedIn C OMMUNITY, with over 5,300 members across the professions
Automatically become a member of INSOL International and get their full member benefits.
Enjoy a free subscription our monthly newsletter and to EUROFENIX, INSOL Europe’s popular quarterly 48-page journal, to which you can also contribute an article.
Free access to our huge TECHNICAL RESOURCES library.
Opportunity to propose topics and speak at events.
GET INVOLVED on projects that affect your particular industry in one of our many working groups or committees or EU projects.
INSOL Europe has a STRONG RELATIONSHIP with EU officials and representatives of inter-governmental organisations.

Visit our website for more details or contact Hannah Denney.

When insolvency law meets environmental issues - Seminar report

Emmanuelle Inacio, INSOL Europe Chief Technical Officer, reports from the recent CNAJMJ International Conference co-labelled by INSOL Europe with the participation of Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

INSOL Europe Council member Christophe Thevenot (Thevenot Partners / TRIP Group Co-Chair, France) - past president of the CNAJMJ (body representing the restructuring and insolvency practitioners in France with whom INSOL Europe has a cooperation agreement) - organised on 23 March in Paris a one-day conference co-labelled by INSOL Europe with the support of the University Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne.

This one-day hybrid event taking place in the splendid premises of the Paris Commercial Court, attracted 90 delegates and 40 online participants from EU jurisdictions and abroad as Albania, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Israel, Moldova, Oman, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Switzerland, UK, and the United States.

President Patrick Sayer (Tribunal des activités économiques de Paris) set the intellectual tone by mapping the fundamental tension between economic and ecological public policy within insolvency proceedings. He traced the legislative trajectory that led to the introduction of the environmental privilege, now ranked sixth in order of priority under the Loi Industrie Verte of 2023, and examined its practical implications alongside the growing impact of the CSRD Directive on the assessment of going concern, workforce preservation, and the viability of restructuring plans. He closed by advocating for the development of third-party funding mechanisms and for robust international harmonisation under the auspices of UNCITRAL, as essential tools to prevent ecological forum shopping.

CNAJMJ President Florence Tulier-Polge, INSOL Europe President Frances Coulson and UNCITRAL Secretary Anna Joubin-Bret addressed their respective opening remarks.

A full report will be published in the April edition of Eurofenix, coming soon!

New Chairs for the INSOL Europe Young Members Group

We are pleased to announce that the INSOL Europe Young Members Group (YMG) has two new co-chairs, Elina Pesonen and Jean-Luc Hagon.

Elina Pesonen works at Castrén & Snellman Ltd’s restructuring and insolvency practise are and assists clients in all situations related to insolvency law. She has long experience of several extensive bankruptcy and restructuring proceedings which are also noteworthy due to their international aspects. Her experience includes acting as the administrator, assisting the administrator and representing creditors. She also assists clients in voluntary debt arrangements, pledge enforcement cases and in asset recovery matters. She has acted as a liquidator in numerous voluntary liquidation proceedings.

Jean-Luc Hagon is Counsel at CMS Belgium. He specialises in corporate and insolvency litigation. Jean-Luc has built a solid expertise covering both domestic and cross-border disputes pertaining to, among others, shareholders’ disputes, directors’ liability, assets recovery and insolvency (including out-of-court restructurings). Jean-Luc is also currently lecturer for INSOL INTERNATIONAL on the Foundation Certificate.

We would like to thank the outgoing co-chairs, Klaudia Frątczak-Kospin and José Carles for their amazing input into the YMG over their three-year tenure. They were certainly hard to replace but we are confident that the new co-chairs will continue their great work and we look forward to publishing their plans for the group soon.

For information about the Young Members Group, visit our website here.

We are thankful to Schiebe und Collegen for sponsoring the group.

Richard Turton Award 2026: Win a free place to the Vilamoura Congress!

Richard Turton had a unique role in the formation and management of INSOL Europe,
INSOL International, the IPA (English Insolvency Practitioners Association) and R3 (Association of Business Recovery Professionals in the UK). In recognition of his achievements, these four organisations jointly created an award in memory of Richard.

The 2026 competition is now open for anyone who is a national of a developing or emerging nation; works in or studies insolvency and restructuring law and practice and is under 35 years of age. The successful applicant will be asked to write a paper of 3,000 words on a subject of insolvency or turnaround agreed with the panel. This paper will be published in summary in one or more of the four Member Associations' journals and in full on their websites.

The winner will be invited to attend the INSOL Europe Annual Congress in Vilamoura, Portugal, 14-18 October 2026, expenses paid. Applications deadline: 5 June 2026.

In the words of Dorjana Xhamaqi, winner in 2025: “The Richard Turton Award will always remain one of the moments that changed my path - a shining moment in my career - and also a promise I make to myself to continue working with passion, to never lose my sense of humanity and to never forget that a true professional is measured by the positive impact they leave behind.”

For more information and to apply, visit the Richard Turton Award page here.

Save the Dates - Forthcoming Events for 2026 and 2027

The momentum is already building for this year's events. We’re shaping an exciting new programme of high-profile seminars and conferences, designed to bring businesses, industries, and professionals together to connect, collaborate, and unlock new opportunities.

The year ahead will be rich with moments for meaningful networking, influential thought leadership, and opportunities for strategic growth. Below is a preview of the key INSOL Europe events set to spark ideas, open doors, and help define the trends shaping 2026.

4 June 2026, R3 & INSOL Europe 20th International Restructuring Conference, London, UK
14 October 2026, YANIL Workshop, Vilamoura, Portugal
14-15 October 2026, Academic Forum Conference, Vilamoura, Portugal
15-18 October 2026, Annual Congress, Vilamoura, Portugal
17-19 June 2027, AIJA/INSOL Europe Young Members Group Joint Conference, Barcelona, Spain

Visit our website for more events to be added as they are confirmed.

Thanks to our General Sponsors

Please contact Hannah Denney for sponsorship opportunities.

We welcome feedback, news and story ideas for future newsletters.

Please send your suggestions to Paul Newson, email: paulnewson@insol-europe.org

INSOL Europe, PO Box 7149, Clifton, Nottingham. NG11 6WD

www.insol-europe.org

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is sent to members of INSOL Europe. No responsibility legal or otherwise is accepted by INSOL Europe for any errors, omissions or otherwise. The opinions expressed in the articles that appear are not necessarily shared by any representative of INSOL Europe.