20. Recalls that the Icesave dispute remains unresolved at this stage; stresses that the Icesave issue must be resolved outside the accession negotiations and must not be an obstacle in the way of Iceland’s accession process; takes note of EFTA’s Surveillance Authority decision to refer the ‘Icesave’ case to the EEA Court and of the ruling of the Icelandic Supreme Court upholding the Emergency Act of 6 October 2008; appreciates the continuous commitment of the Icelandic authorities to resolve this dispute and welcomes the first partial payments to priority creditors in the winding-up of Landsbanki Íslands hf, estimated to be close to ...[+++]one-third of the recognised priority claims;

21. Recalls that the Icesave dispute remains unresolved at this stage; stresses that the Icesave issue must be resolved outside the accession negotiations and must not be an obstacle in the way of Iceland's accession process; takes note of EFTA's Surveillance Authority decision to refer the ‘Icesave’ case to the EEA Court and of the ruling of the Icelandic Supreme Court upholding the Emergency Act of 6 October 2008; appreciates the continuous commitment of the Icelandic authorities to resolve this dispute and welcomes the first partial payments to priority creditors in the winding-up of Landsbanki Íslands hf, estimated to be close to ...[+++]one-third of the recognised priority claims;

A private investor would not have entered into such a transaction without a credible and realistic prior assessment showing that it would be more cost-effective to swap the debt for equity instead of remaining a preferential creditor of the company.

Second, as to SFIRS’ actual prospects of recovering the money owed to it by Legler, by becoming a shareholder via the debt-for-equity swap SFIRS had actually weakened its claim position, compared with its prior position as a preferential creditor.

Under Austrian law, there are no preferential creditors, but the costs of the insolvency practitioner are settled in priority to any unsecured creditors.

There shall be a framework which allows the lender to have a first priority claim over the collateral subject to national discretion to allow such claims to be subject to the claims of preferential creditors provided for in legislative or implementing provisions;