Part I Corporate Debt Restructuring, 2 The EC Regulation on Insolvency Proceedings

The chapter discusses instances where the restructuring plan demands that the debtor be made subject to a formal insolvency system. The applicable laws are determined in accordance with the EC Regulation on Insolvency Proceedings if the debtor has its centre of main interests (COMI) in one EU Member State and assets in another Member State. If the COMIs of individual group companies are situated in the same Member State, the EC Regulation can be used to group together the administration of group insolvencies, or once the recast EC Regulation comes into force, to implement voluntary group coordinator proceedings. Any restructuring plan may include moving a debtor’s COMI to take advantage of a more flexible insolvency regime. This chapter describes the framework and key features of the EC Regulation including the concept of COMI, its application to group insolvencies, ‘COMI shifting’, and the provisions of the recast EC Regulation.