In view of the forthcoming Christmas and New Year, we hope that you have been successful in your endeavours and now are happily proceeding to completion of your ongoing projects. As usual, the year-end bustle is speeding up, and Belarus is no exception. In this regard, we are glad to share with you the overview below of the most recent legal and business news.

Persons entitled to file an insolvency application and insolvency (IS) proceedings entry criteria: 

1) A non-secured creditor or a secured creditor (regarding the non-secured part of the claim), in cases where:

Preconditions for starting an LPP:

1) no liquidation initiated against the debtor;

2) in the previous 5 years, the debtor has not implemented and completed LPP;

1) Debtor prepares OCLPP plan & obtains approval from creditors:

- more than 50% non-secured creditors (total of principal claims);

- at least 2/3 secured creditors (total of principal claims).

Who may not vote (on approval the plan): persons in the same group of companies, shareholders (natural persons) with decisive influence and persons who acquired claims against the debtor from the aforementioned persons within the previous 2 years.

2) Debtor and creditors agree on supervisor's candidate during OCLPP.

On 16 April 2014 the Estonian Parliament adopted amendments to the bankruptcy and reorganisation laws. The law has now been published in Riigi Teataja (the official journal) and will enter into force on 19 May 2014.

The main law governing insolvency issues in Latvia is the Insolvency Law (Maksātnespējas likums)

The types of proceedings available are as follows:

On 6 January 2017, another package of large-scale amendments to the Insolvency Law came partly into force. The main part of the amendments to the Insolvency Law comes into force on 1 July 2017 and thereafter.

The current year has brought new amendments to the Commercial Law. These mainly refer to the company liquidation procedure. Additionally, the Commercial Law now contains a new procedure for suspending operations of a commercial entity. The amendments also set limits on a natural person doing business or occupying certain positions following decisions during criminal proceedings or proceedings involving administrative violations.

This newsflash covers novelties and trends in the field of board member liability. Initially it was stated that on 1 January 2015, new amendments to the Latvian Insolvency Law come into force setting liability of management board members for non-submission of accounting documents to the insolvency administrator. However currently there is a draft law submitted to the Parliament in order to postpone the effective date to 01.03.2015.

Major amendments have been introduced to the Insolvency Law. Although initially the plan was that  these  would  enter  into  force  on 1 January next year, currently a draft law is before the Parliament to postpone the effective date to 1 March 2015. This newsflash deals with the main innovations.

Obligation to file for insolvency