A few days ago, I published on my blog an article concerning Annex A of the European Insolvency Regulation (EIR 2025), see https://bobwessels.nl/blog/2026-09-doc3-insolvency-regulations-annex-a-hits-a-stumbling-block-again/. It was a slightly adapted version, which had been published in the Europe column I am writing regularly in Global Restructuring Review (GRR). See www.globalrestructuringreview.com.
I received a response from Mark Mouthaan, an experienced restructuring attorney from Rotterdam. He points out that I made a translation error by translating the CNC procedure mentioned in the Rotterdam District Court ruling as ‘Concordato preventive procedure’, whereas these are two different procedures. The CNC procedure (Composizione Negoziata della Crisi d’imppresa) is not listed in Annex A, which the court correctly considered (see -in Dutch – District Court Rotterdam 3 June 2026, ECLI:NL:RBROT:2026:6431 (RSG Groep B.V v. Socieà per azioni Rizanni de Eccher S.P.A.), at 5.68 (in my translation: “Incidentally, this is separate from the question of whether the CNC procedure—or at least the resulting orders—had effect in the Netherlands, given that the procedure is not listed in Annex A to the Insolvency Regulation ((EU) 2015/848).”).
Mark Mouthaan is right. This CNC procedure is indeed distinct from the ‘concordato preventivo’ procedure. However, the point of my argument concerned a different issue: specifically, the phrase “… that the procedure is not listed in Annex A to the Insolvency Regulation ((EU) 2015/848).” To which Annex A is the court referring here?
The recast version of the original Insolvency Regulation of 2000 is Regulation (EU) 2015/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015 on insolvency proceedings (recast), published in OJ L 141, 5.6.2015. This Official Journal contains the text of the Regulation as well as four annexes, including Annex A.
Six years later, a separate Regulation (EU) 2021/2260 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 2021 was published (OJ L 455/4, 20.12.2021), “… amending Regulation (EU) 2015/848 on insolvency proceedings to replace its Annexes A and B”. Recital 5 of the Regulation 2021/12260 states that “Annexes A and B to Regulation (EU) 2015/848 should therefore be amended accordingly”. For Italy (to limit the example to this Member State), this means that Annex A now lists 11 insolvency proceedings instead of the 7 proceedings included in the 2015 annex.
Four years later, an updated Annex appears once again via Regulation 2025/2073 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 October 2025 “… amending Regulation (EU) 2015/848 on insolvency proceedings to replace its Annexes A and B”. Here, in Regulation 2025/2073, the wording of the recital (recital 6 in this instance) differs: “Regulation (EU) 2015/848 should therefore be amended accordingly”. For Italy no fewer than 13 procedures are included in this Annex.
The text of this latter recital strikes me as correct because Regulation 2015/848 as a whole requires amendment; perhaps the aforementioned recital 5—limiting the scope to an amendment of the relevant Annexes—was legislatively incomplete.
Once again: to which Annex is the Rotterdam District Court referring? The one form 2015, the one of 2021 or the Annex of 2025?
In any case, Mark is right about the point he raises, and I thank him kindly for this observation. Although I got lost in translation (see https://bobwessels.nl/blog/2025-09-doc1-lost-in-translation-annex-a-of-the-european-insolvency-regulation/), there is all the more reason to thoroughly reconsider the entire system involving Annex A and especially the manner of its publication. The query is, should it be published as part of the Insolvency Regulation itself or as a standalone publication of an autonomous regulation. And then the transparency of its publication—the accessibility of these important amendments. There is a need to provide notice of the entry into force of “a new Annex” in a manner that is both unambiguous (via the Official Journal) and generous (for example, through a press release).