Insolvency 2025

POLAND Trends and Developments Contributed by: Karol Tatara, Paweł Kuglarz, Anna Czarnota and Mateusz Kaliński, Tatara & Partners Restructuring & Insolvency Law Firm

Introduction The current trends and developments in the Polish insolvency market mainly revolve around arrange - ment approval proceedings, as well as liquidation arrangements and the implementation of EU Direc - tive 2019/1023, and developments regarding the EU Insolvency Directive. EU Directive 2019/1023 and the Proposal for the Insolvency Directive EU Directive 2019/1023, which should have been implemented by 17 July 2022, finally came into force in August 2025 in Poland (the last EU member state to implement it). The main characteristics of the Directive include a dif - ferent approach to the stay of enforcement and the time limit thereof, as well as a revision of the cross- class cram-down mechanism which to some extent already functions under the Polish Restructuring Law. Other noteworthy amendments relate to restructuring advisers, the position of secured creditors, restructur - ing proceedings for groups of companies, organisa - tional changes in the judiciary system and early warn - ing tools. Among other matters, one of the issues highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic was the need to imple - ment technical measures related to conducting credi - tors’ meetings by means of electronic communication rather than in person or via traditional mail. A government taskforce to draft legal acts aiming to implement the Directive was established in Poland and prepared a publicly available draft of the Directive. Professional organisations like the INSO Section of the Allerhand Institute and the National Chamber of Restructuring Advisers (“KIDR”) actively supported the ongoing public debate relating to the Directive’s implementation and published their positions within the legislative proceedings of the new law. Generally speaking, there is consensus in the profes - sional milieu that insolvency and restructuring laws in Poland need to be revisited and the Directive has provided an impulse for this action. It is commonly agreed that the amendments should facilitate access

to out-of-court proceedings under the arrangement approval proceedings or simplify other existing types of restructuring proceedings. Some academics and practitioners have also expressed the need to limit the number of such proceedings. Therefore, a general suggestion is to simplify the restructuring proceedings and limit their number as soon as the opportunity to amend the law presents itself. There are currently four restructuring proceed - ings and one temporary (simplified) restructuring pro - ceeding. In December 2022, the European Commission pre - sented a proposal for a Directive harmonising certain aspects of insolvency law. Polish experts prepared and drafted positions within the EU legislative frame - work, and it is planned that the Directive should soon enter formal legislative procedure. The proposal covers: • avoidance actions; • the tracing of assets belonging to the insolvency estate; • pre-pack proceedings; • the duty of directors to submit a request for the opening of insolvency proceedings; • simplified winding-up proceedings for micro-enter - prises; • creditors’ committees; and • the drawing-up of a key information fact sheet by member states on certain elements of their national law on insolvency proceedings. Arrangement approval proceedings and liquidation arrangement The so-called “simplified restructuring proceedings” (SRP) were introduced prior to implementation of the Directive. Under Polish law, these proceedings are mostly out of court for now. The proceedings were introduced by the COVID-19 legislation of 2020 and although it has not been possible to initiate these proceedings since December 2021, there are still a number of ongoing cases. The condition to benefiting from the SRP is to have the announcement made in the court and Commercial

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