According to the OECD, Portugal is in the top three countries in terms of implementing new measures to face this COVID-19 pandemic. However, regarding the legal framework of insolvency and restructuring, the only direct, exceptional and temporary measure approved by the Portuguese authorities was to suspend the time limit for the debtor itself to petition for insolvency, with effect from 7 April 2020. No pre-insolvency exceptional measures have been adopted.

The Directive (EU) 2019/1023 on preventive restructuring frameworks ("the Directive") was passed on 20 June 2019 bringing about a change of paradigm in corporate restructuring. A change that should allow the States of the European Union to catch up with countries adhering to the Anglo-Saxon model, both in restructuring and insolvency matters and also upstream, in financial matters, due to the influence of the insolvency legislation on the provision of credit ex-ante.

COVID-19 and the correspondent lockdown measures have affected our lives in many ways. From a legal perspective, it has proven that jurisdictions that were already adapted to technology have provided a better response in the administration of justice.

In January 2020, the world woke up facing a phenomenon that some had predicted but few wanted to hear about or were prepared for: a global pandemic, now commonly called the COVID-19 crisis. Immediately, many economists were convinced that the world was heading for a stock market crash and an economic crisis. They were right. The stock market sank, and all countries that imposed strict lockdown measures face a significant contraction in their GDP.

The past experience with the European Insolvency Regulation (2000) has shown that even if all the courts in the Member States are only bound by decisions delivered at the EU level by the CJEU, all interested parties involved in an insolvency case (namely courts, insolvency practitioners, chartered accountants, lawyers and even debtors themselves in certain cases) may find it of great interest to look at the decisions made by other courts in other Member States for guidance.