On 23 October 2025, the Freshfields Vienna team welcomed legal experts and financial leaders to its Vienna office for its 17th annual CEE Finance Workshop.
Under the overarching theme "Europe 2.0 – Competitive and Autonomous", the day's discussions were kicked off with a keynote from Sebastian Firlinger, CFO of Kommunalkredit Austria AG, on infrastructure's pivotal role in driving competitiveness. He emphasized innovation as the engine for economic prosperity, required for maintaining European competitiveness and autonomy, framing the core challenge as how to fuel this growth while navigating an increasingly complex regulatory environment.
The following panel discussions then explored the critical role that thoughtfully designed legal and regulatory frameworks play in building resilience and driving growth across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). From recalibrating credit markets and delivering on regulatory promises to navigating the new insolvency playbook and financing the transition, the panels provided a comprehensive look at a region that is proactively shaping its economic future.
Credit Markets for a Competitive Europe – Local Solutions to Global Drivers
The first panel discussion centred around the theme "Credit Markets for a Competitive Europe", moderated by Anouschka Zagorski and Florian Branauer of Freshfields, revealed a landscape of sharp contrasts – from the Czech Republic's liquid, borrower-friendly environment to Hungary's high-interest, low-demand market. The discussion amongst the participants, Marija Pušić (Karanovic & Partners, Bosnia & Herzegovina), Péter Horvai-Hillenbrand (Oppenheim, Hungary) and Tomáš Sedláček (BBH, Czech Republic), explored various drivers, and their impact on the domestic credit markets.
The discussion particularly underscored the divergent impacts of shifting European export market structures. For instance, while Bosnia & Herzegovina has seen increased credit demand by positioning itself as an alternative supply partner, Hungary has experienced a contraction in demand following a decline in intra-European exports. Furthermore, the dialogue on the evolving lending landscape revealed distinct national approaches shaped by historical context, ranging from Bosnia's established micro-credit institutions and Hungary's SME credit subsidy program to the burgeoning alternative financing sector in the Czech Republic.
The panellists also highlighted similarities and differences in respect of the enforcement of loan collateral and key sectoral trends, such as financing the energy and defence industry, alongside the potential of alternative financing sources in navigating the current economic climate.
Regulating for Growth – Delivering on the Promise
The subsequent panel titled "Making Regulation Deliver", moderated by Eva Schneider and Max Ihra of Freshfields, explored how regulation can foster an innovative and competitive financial infrastructure. The discussion, featuring Alexandra Manciulea (Filip & Company, Romania), Kätlin Krisak (Sorainen, Baltics), and Damir Topić (Divjak Topić Bahtijarević & Krka, Croatia), contrasted a spectrum of national strategies — from regulators’ measures aimed at growth and support of digital financial solutions as seen in the Baltics and Romania, with their innovation hubs, dialogue between authorities and market participants, a deliberate restraint on sanctioning non-compliance in certain areas and (in Estonia’s case) even a target to reduce regulation by 10%, to more restrictive regulatory approaches in Croatia.
A central theme was the burden of overregulation. The panel highlighted the challenge of rising compliance costs from EU frameworks like DORA, especially for smaller market participants, while celebrating clear regulatory wins, such as the boom in Romanian securitisation transactions enabled by the EU securitisation regulation and a facilitation of licensing processes through Estonia's digital licensing tool.
Ultimately, the discussion converged on a key strategic imperative: to remain competitive with regions like the US and other global markets, European regulation must be thoughtfully designed and, at times, reduced.
No More Extend and Pretend – The New CEE Insolvency Playbook
The following panel themed "No More Extend and Pretend", moderated by Florian Klimscha and Maximilian Hohenauer of Freshfields, gathered legal experts from CEE to explore restructuring and insolvency trends. Participants included Łukasz Gasiński (RZM Law, Poland), Roman Vydra (BBH Law, Slovakia), Emil Emanuilov (Kambourov, Bulgaria), and Igor Angelovski (Ketler and Partners, Slovenia).
The panel first reviewed restructuring frameworks across the participating jurisdictions, whereas different perceptions and market drivers were discussed. Poland's more market-oriented approach was particularly noteworthy in contrast to more restrictive regimes in other jurisdictions. An interesting aspect of the discussion was also how the state and government agencies are exercising and interpreting their rights as creditors in restructuring proceedings across the jurisdictions. The panel agreed that different features of the legal frameworks, such as minimum quotas, also influence the extent to which restructuring proceedings are perceived by the creditors.
The second part of the discussion focused on recent experiences that revealed varied challenges. The panellists presented their views on stringent restructuring rules, implemented as a response to the public perception of restructurings being abused to the detriment of creditors, now hindering successful restructurings. The participants also shared insights from complex restructuring proceedings that they have recently advised on, as well as their "lessons learned" from such cases. These discussions underscored the relevance and impact of sentiment and public perception based on publicly discussed cases. The panel concluded with discussing the region's overall diverse legal innovations and ongoing practical hurdles in restructuring. Also, the panellists shared their views on how AI may shape restructuring proceedings in the future.
Financing Transition – National Priorities, Green Capital and Regional Independence in CEE
The final panel "Financing Transition – National Priorities, Green Capital and Regional Independence in CEE", moderated by Stephan Pachinger and Aylin Bektasli of Freshfields, brought together Zekican Samlı (Paksoy, Türkiye), Maja Jovančević Šetka (Karanovic & Partners, Serbia) and Glib Bondar (Avellum, Ukraine) to discuss how CEE can accelerate its energy transition through national frameworks, green financing and cross‑border collaboration. The discussion underscored the importance of developing a comprehensive and diversified energy mix that combines renewable sources with conventional and emerging technologies, supported by resilient infrastructure, effective energy storage and diverse international energy partnerships and supply routes to ensure long‑term energy independence and security across the region.
Türkiye is focusing on diversifying its heavily gas-reliant energy mix and strengthening security through new international partnerships and policy measures. The country has also launched an emission trading system to advance decarbonisation goals and attract sustainable investment, while green initiatives such as regulatory incentives in the real estate sector are helping drive the transition across industries. Serbia is progressing with legislative reforms to reduce coal dependence and improve carbon regulation, supported by a growing network of international financial institutions and commercial banks that are increasingly funding green investments, such as large wind projects. Ukraine, facing extraordinary challenges amid reconstruction, is building a resilient and self‑sufficient green system by addressing overproduction without storage capacity, electricity blackouts and infrastructure bottlenecks. This includes integrating battery technology to enhance reliability and security-driven infrastructure design to ensure long-term stability.
Concluding Thoughts and Future Perspectives
The workshop painted a clear picture of a region that is proactively using legal innovation as a strategic lever for growth and autonomy. Thus, the direction of travel is clear: through thoughtfully designed reforms and deepening market sophistication, CEE jurisdictions are confidently building a more competitive and interconnected European future.
Stay tuned for further insights from our CEE Capital Markets Workshop in an upcoming blog post.
