After a postponement of almost two years from the originally scheduled date (August 15, 2020) for its entry into force - mainly caused by the crisis caused by the pandemic emergency - on July 15, 2022, the Code of Corporate Crisis and Insolvency (or "CCII") set forth in Legislative Decree 14/2019, as most recently amended by Legislative Decree No. 83 of June 17, 2022, containing a final set of changes and important innovations, finally entered into force.
Dopo uno slittamento di quasi due anni dalla data originariamente prevista (15 agosto 2020) per la sua entrata in vigore - principalmente causato dalla crisi provocata dall’emergenza pandemica - il 15 luglio 2022 è definitivamente entrato in vigore il Codice della Crisi di Impresa e dell’Insolvenza (o “CCII”) di cui al DLgs. 14/2019, così come da ultimo modificato dal DLgs. 17 giugno 2022 n. 83 contenente una ultima serie di modifiche ed importanti novità.
The Supreme Court confirmed parties' freedom to contractually modify any of the prerequisites for set-off under Bulgarian law, thus permitting various quasi-security arrangements in commercial and financial contracts that creditors may avail themselves of.
Prerequisites for statutory set-off in Bulgaria
The Hungarian government issued a decree that amends certain provisions of the bank's liquidation proceedings. The decree entered into force on 15 April 2022 and affects the solvent liquidation of Sberbank Hungary, a subsidiary of Sberbank Europe AG, the Hungarian member of the Russian Sberbank group.
So far, the Bulgarian economy has encountered various COVID-19-related effects, but a surge in insolvencies is not yet one of them. Although the Bulgarian state was slow in implementing measures to help companies affected by the pandemic – which measures turned out to be insufficient – there has been no visible increase in bankruptcy proceedings since 2020.
There has been a longstanding need in Hungary for a legal instrument to rescue distressed companies. The only legal solution so far for such companies was the unpopular and inflexible bankruptcy procedure, which is also risky for the debtor, as failure will automatically turn into a liquidation proceeding and the company will cease to exist. Bankruptcy, with its formalistic procedures and limited involvement of creditors in the decision-making, has done more harm than good. It also usually stigmatised the debtor.
As of 17 July 2021 the EU restructuring directive1 was implemented in Austria by the new Austrian Restructuring Code (ReC). The ReC allows debtors to enter formal restructuring proceedings before actually becoming insolvent. To minimise the disruption to debtor's operations, the proceedings are not public, a ban on enforcement of collateral can be implemented and the rights of counterparts to amend or terminate existing contracts are significantly curtailed.
Following its approval on 5th August 2021 by the Council of Ministers, the Law-Decree n. 118 was published on 24th August into the G.U. n. 202 about the topic of "Urgent measures in the field of business crises and business reorganisation, as well as further urgent measures in the field of justice".
Firstly, the Law-Decree postpones the entry into force of the Italian Crisis Code until 16th May 2022 (Art. 1, letter a), further postponing to 31 December 2023 the “crisis alert related procedures” introduced by Article 12 of the Crisis Code.
A seguito dell’approvazione avvenuta il 5 agosto 2021 da parte del Consiglio dei ministri, è stato pubblicato il 24 agosto in G.U. n 202 il Decreto-legge n. 118 in tema di “Misure urgenti in materia di crisi d’impresa e di risanamento aziendale, nonché ulteriori misure urgenti in materia di giustizia”.
Il Decreto in primo luogo differisce l’entrata in vigore del Codice della Crisi al 16 maggio 2022 (art. 1, lett. a), posticipando ulteriormente al 31 dicembre 2023 le procedure di allerta della crisi introdotte dall'art. 12 CCI.
The Czech Ministry of Justice recently published a bill on preventive restructurings (the "Bill") implementing the directive on preventive restructuring frameworks which will introduce a brand-new legal tool preventing the insolvency of viable enterprises in temporary financial difficulties.
The Bill is now heading to the legislative process and should become effective from July 2022. Although it may still undergo some changes, it is already obvious that it will revolutionise Czech insolvency law.