On 12 November 2018, Giese & Partner organized the first INSOL Europe Lunch in Prague. Ernst Giese reports on this event which took place in the historic centre of Prague in the vicinity of the famous Castle. 

Several insolvency law experts, liquidators and qualified attorneys from leading Czech law firms accepted the invitation to discuss the current status of the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on preventive restructuring frameworks, second chance and measures to increase the efficiency of restructuring, insolvency and discharge procedures and amending Directive 2012/30/ EU.

The president of INSOL Europe, Mr. Alastair Beveridge gave the welcome address and introduced the association and its activities.

The keynote speaker was Mr. Nicolaes W. A. Tollenaar from RESOR law firm, Amsterdam. Mr. Tollenaar presented a lively analysis on the Proposal in respect to “debtor-friendly” and “creditor-friendly” systems. His analysis was clearly that the first ones hinder whereas the latter ones facilitate business rescues.

Mr. Tollenaar offered many useful insights and an outline of what insolvency proceedings should look like ideally, while taking into account economic criteria. He criticised the EC initiative for failing to provide not only the debtor, but also creditors, the right to propose a restructuring plan. Exclusivity in favour of the debtor gives controlling shareholders the ability to offer creditors only marginally more than they might receive in a liquidation. If creditors do not have the right to put forward their own plan and develop an alternative, in practical terms they have no other option than to accept the plan put forward through the debtor by the controlling shareholder. This leads to a transfer of wealth from creditors to shareholders.

All attendees then shared their opinions, suggestions for consideration and exchanged their professional experience across borders. Tomáš Richter from Clifford Chance (Czech Republic) brought into discussion his practical knowledge, pointing out the fact that there is good and modern legislation focusing on insolvency in the Czech Republic, but the judicial application is very inconsistent in quality.

Finally, the attendees suggested that regular meetings of the insolvency community in Prague will help to promote INSOL Europe in the Czech Republic.

The UK-European cross-border insolvency after Brexit: The framework for the post-Brexit relationship between the UK and the EU is not yet certain. However, in the field of cross-border insolvency INSOL Europe offers a preferred arrangement and an alternative. Preferably, the UK will remain subject to the European Insolvency Regulation, whether on the back of a bilateral agreement between the UK and the EU27 or otherwise. The alternative may be for the EU to adopt the UNCITRAL Model Law to add to the current cross-border insolvency regime.

The detail of INSOL Europe’s view is set out in a paper, Bankruptcy after Brexit. [Read more]

The European Commission has awarded funding under the JUST/2017/Action Grants programme to a project led by Professor Irene Lynch Fannon, a noted academic at the University College Cork writes Paul J. Omar, Technical Research Coordinator, INSOL Europe. The project, titled Judicial Co-Operation supporting Economic Recovery in Europe (or JCOERE for short), also involves the University of Florence, Titu Maiorescu University Bucharest and INSOL Europe.

Work on the project, which is scheduled to last two years, will focus on rules and practice which might present obstacles to the co-operation obligation referred to in Articles 42 and 57 of the Recast EIR. Given the prospective adoption of the Draft Directive on preventive restructuring in 2019, the project will analyse current procedural, substantive and other rules existing in a number of member states that might impede the way in which courts communicate and cooperate with each other.

The dissemination of information and outcomes is an important part of this project which will facilitate improved awareness of co-operation and communication provisions in insolvency texts and make available practical experience which might inform future steps to be taken by practitioners and judges in the administration of cross-border cases.

For more news from INSOL Europe Academic Forum visit: https://www.insol-europe.org/academic-forum-news

[Read more]

The Technical Committee for the INSOL Europe 2019 Congress which will be held in Copenhagen from 26-29 September 2019 invites all INSOL Europe members to express their interest to participate as speakers at our flagship event.

All expressions of interest should be sent to the Secretary to the INSOL Europe Conference Technical Committees, Emmanuelle Inacio, and should indicate:

• the speaker’s nationality, affiliation and qualifications,

• the topic on which the speaker would be interested in speaking, and

• a short statement as to what unique or compelling perspective the speaker would like to bring to the congress.

The Technical Committee seeks in particular proposals from speakers who have not been speakers at the last two Annual Congresses. 
 
Expressions of interest should be sent as early as possible. All expressions of interest will be considered by the Technical Committee, although due to the large number the Committee expects to receive, the Committee likely will not be able to accommodate all, or even most, requests.

Michala Roepstorff (Plesner, Denmark) & Florian Bruder (DLA Piper, Germany) Co-chairs of the INSOL Europe’s 2019 Copenhagen Congress