Piya Mukherjee
President of
INSOL Europe

The new law aims to strengthen the rights of creditors, improve the procedure of debtors’ assets sale at bankruptcy auctions, provide precise mechanisms for restoring the solvency of debtors, and enhance the overall efficiency of bankruptcy proceedings. The Code introduces the concepts of personal bankruptcy and simplifies corporate bankruptcy. Moreover, their efforts of creating an Insolvency Practitioners’ Association have paid off, and recently they had their first general meeting. Similar to the Dnieper, as legend states, blessed by his father to transform into a river and catch up to his sister, Ukrainian insolvency practitioners are moving fast and we look forward to sampling a little bit of their innovative practice. It is this determination that makes Ukraine the perfect place for our 16th EECC Conference! 

Network with colleagues

We hope you will join us, as we have prepared many surprises and good entertainment, and we encourage you to come early and stay late. On 21 May (Thursday, pre-conference) there is the INSOL Europe optional networking dinner at the restaurant Publicist during which the guests can have a taste of both Ukraine’s culinary and music traditions. On Friday evening there is the Young Members Reception at the Rockfellow 210 (just five minutes walk from the hotel).

Register today or Download the Congress Brochure for full details.

The Academic Forum of INSOL Europe will be hosting its 16th annual conference in Sorrento, Italy, on Wednesday 30 September–Thursday 1 October 2020, immediately prior to INSOL Europe's main annual conference taking place in Sorrento from 1 to 4 October, 2020.

Expressions of interest are invited for the delivery of research papers within the overall academic conference's theme, which will be: “The Emerging New Landscape of European Restructuring and Insolvency”.

The theme is intended to focus on, inter alia, the following overall topics:
•    Commentaries on the 2019/1023 Directive as such
•    First reports on implementation issues arising in the EU Member States
•    Other related topics. 

For further details, please visit the Academic Website here. 

​Georgia’s insolvency system is facing significant changes today. The new draft law is ready to be enforced and will completely change the system. The current Insolvency Law 2007 is appreciated as primarily oriented towards a rapid liquidation of insolvent corporate entities and private entrepreneurs’ businesses with the subsequent distribution of remaining assets amongst the creditors. The number of insolvency cases dealt with by the local courts is fairly limited, most probably due to insufficient assets in the insolvent entities to cover the costs of the insolvency procedure.

The law leaves many aspects of insolvency procedures either unclear or unregulated.

Nana Amisulashvili, Chair, BRIPA (Business Rehabilitation and Insolvency Practitioners Association), Georgia, reports on the need for reform and the bold approaches of the new law. 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.

Florian Bruder (DLA Piper Munich) and Paul Omar (Technical Research Coordinator, INSOL Europe) report from the recent UNCITRAL conference in Vienna.

The 54th session of Working Group V began in Vienna with the nomination of a new Chair, Harold Foo from Singapore. The objective of the session was to consider the problem of insolvency in relation to Micro- and Small-Enterprises (MSEs). Delegates to Working Group I on business law rules joined the insolvency experts in the room for four days of deliberations. The aim was to provide a model law to help govern the position of enterprises that constitute, in many developing and developed countries, 90-95% of all businesses operating in the economy. Recommendations on the principle of a simplified insolvency regime and its treatment of all business debts were readily adopted at the end of the four days’ work, though not without a great deal of scrutiny of the proposals. Overall, the right balance was sought between the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide framework and the simplified version that was to be recommended for adoption by UN member states.

A great number of issues arose that required a resolution through the consensus model that UNCITRAL operates. Delegates were asked to determine, inter alia, whether a debt repayment plan as a condition for discharge should be an adjunct to or an outcome of simplified proceedings and whether the overall framework should refer to “competent authorities” or just “courts”, with a view to being as embracing as possible with respect to the oversight authority for such proceedings. Other issues canvassed included whether there should be a cap on the number of times proceedings can be extended or instigated, avoiding the possibility of “repeat offenders”, whether the principle of a “discharge” should be framed negatively or positively, by being attainable at a reduced cost and with limited formalities (as the World Bank Principles also foresee) and whether, in particular, secured creditors should be immune from any stay provided in such proceedings.

In addition, concerns were raised over what information should debtors have to provide for proceedings to begin or continue and whether the opening of proceedings could be “automatic” on filing or needs to be subject to control by a competent authority. Whether clawback rules needed to be expressly mentioned was also a theme debated in the group. The context for these issues, in particular, was how to avoid fraudulent filings and how to prevent abuse of process. Lastly, touching on the situation of No Income No Asset cases, delegates were of the view that guidance had to be given as to what elements of a simplified regime would be appropriate for these problematic, but increasingly prevalent cases. As such, a number of delegations volunteered to provide technical assistance should any UN member states require help in transposing one or more of the series of Model Laws that have resulted from UNCITRAL’s work since 1997.

These and many more visions will be the topics of the sessions in the technical programme put together expertly by our hardworking Congress Technical Committee with co-chairs Giorgio Corno (Studio Corno Avvocati) and Simeon Gilchrist (Edwin Coe) at the helm. We are very pleased and thankful for all the suggestions for topics received from the membership – the Congress Technical Committee has been spoilt for choice!

Visit our website or Download the Congress Flyer for more details.