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State was the United Kingdom, which used this refusal as a mechanism to protest against
other Community measures concerning Gibraltar and the crisis of the ‘mad cows’

disease’. Given that two years later the text of this project became the blueprint for the
original European Insolvency Regulation, the ratification of the Convention by the

United Kingdom would have offered a nearly equivalent fall-back option in a post-Brexit
scenario.

Similarly, the Council of Europe dedicated part of its work in the 1990s towards
the drafting of a less ambitious convention on some aspects of cross-border insolvency

law. A final text was agreed between the negotiating States and it required three
36
ratifications to enter into force. While Belgium, Germany, France, Greece, Italy and
Luxembourg signed it, it was only ratified by Cyprus. It does not seem likely that this

project will be revived any time soon.
Given the absence of an international instrument, the treatment of English

insolvencies by EU Member States is currently subject to their national private
international law regimes. This represents a substantial increase in uncertainty, time
and costs, which reduces the attractiveness of conducting insolvency or pre-insolvency

proceedings in England. Aware of the obstacles produced by the multiplicity of legal
regimes in scenarios of financial stress, UNCITRAL adopted in 1997 a Model Law on

Cross-Border Insolvency. The aim was to harmonise the treatment of foreign insolvency
proceedings by the adopting States. The Model law contains rules on the recognition
and effects of foreign insolvency proceedings, the powers of foreign insolvency

practitioners to act in the recognising State and mechanisms of judicial cooperation and
coordination. That is, it is an inward-looking instrument, which does not address the

effectiveness of national insolvencies abroad. Matters of applicable law are also
excluded. Despite its limited scope, the only Member States that have adopted the
Model Law (besides the United Kingdom) are Greece, Poland, Romania and Slovenia.

Under the UNCITRAL Model Law, as well as under other national regimes on
cross-border insolvency, foreign proceedings do not produce automatic effect. To the

36 European Convention of 5 June 1990 on certain international aspects of bankruptcy (the ‘Istanbul
Convention’).

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