The recent judgment of Mrs Justice Proudman in Plaza BV –v- The Law Debenture Trust Corporation¹  illustrates and extends a line of authorities in which the English courts have sought to narrow the scope of the mandatory application of Article 2 of the Brussels Regulation 44/2001.  These cases are a reaction to the broad interpretation of the applicability and effect of Article 2 set out in the ECJ's decision in Owusu –v- Jackson² , and attempt to confine the influence of that decision. 

The legislative process regarding the proposal of the Parliament and of the Council to amend the Regulation (whichwould introduce various changes as proposed by the Commission in order to address issues arisen in the enforcementof the Regulation) is approaching its conclusion

Introduction

This quarter has seen a wave of legislative and regulatory reform on the way. We review some of the more significant developments.

Insolvency exemption to the Jackson reforms extended indefinitely

In the latest decision on COMI (Northsea Base Investment Limited & ors [2015] EWHC 121 (Ch)), the English Court had to determine the centre of main interest for a  group of companies registered in Cyprus, but where the operations of the companies were managed by a shipping agent in London.

What might be the funding risk?

A member state exit is likely to result in increased liquidity problems and less available funding as financial institutions manage their exposure to the Eurozone. Businesses may find that traditional sources of finance (loans, bonds etc) are less easy to obtain or raise.

Intra group funding may also be problematic if there are intra-company loans to subsidiaries located in risk member states and those subsidiaries are having difficulty meeting their payment obligations under such loans.

In the Q1 2014 edition of Global Insight, we discussed the progress already made in respect of the Proposed Amendments to the EC Insolvency Regulation as of April 2014. The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have now considered the Commission’s proposed amendments.

In this article we will continue to focus on the progress made regarding:

On 27 July 2014, the Regulation (UE) n.º 655/2014, of the European Parliament and of  the Council (the “Regulation”), establishing a European Account Preservation Order procedure to facilitate cross-border debt recovery in civil and commercial matters was  published.

Key points

• Where main proceedings have been opened in one member state, secondary proceedings may be opened in another member state where the debtor has an establishment. The effects of the secondary proceedings shall be restricted to the assets in that territory.  
• Local law and court discretion may apply to the opening of secondary proceedings and may be exercised, but these should not be discriminatory.

The Facts

I. Medio ambiente En materia medioambiental destacamos la aprobación de  las siguientes normas en estos últimos meses: 1. La Ley 11/2014, de 3 de julio, por la que se  modifica la Ley 26/2007, de 23 de octubre, de  Responsabilidad Medioambiental. Tiene por objeto  adaptar la actual normativa en materia de responsabilidad  ambiental para adecuarla a lo regulado por la  Directiva 2013/30/UE, del Parlamento Europeo y  del Consejo, de 12 de junio del 2013.

In the Schmid case the European Court of Justice ruled on the issue of jurisdiction of the Courts of a Member State ofthe EU where an insolvency procedure was commenced, whose receiver started a claw-back action against a defendantdomiciled in a non-Member State

The Case