The EU Commission issued a proposal for a Directive harmonising certain aspects of insolvency law, EU (COM(2022) 702 final. Although still being discussed, the Proposal is unlikely to result in material amendments to existing Bulgarian insolvency avoidance actions, which follows the principles set out in the Proposal and in many ways affords creditors a greater level of protection. Nevertheless, certain time periods and rules on the implementation of the avoidance actions may need to be amended in the Bulgarian law.

The pre-pack insolvency sale is not currently regulated under Bulgarian law.

The Bulgarian law currently regulates the implementation of a recovery plan as a stage of opened insolvency proceedings, such recovery plan may provide for the sale of the business as a going concern, or the sale of a business as a going concern prior to opening insolvency proceedings. The recovery plan is described in more detail below.

We saw important amendments to the Bulgarian Commerce Act (the “Act”) come to life at the very end of 2016, most notably regarding:

Notary certifications – currently in effect

A number of changes have been made to insolvency procedure to remove various discrepancies and controversial practices:

A number of changes have been made to insolvency procedure to remove various discrepancies and controversial practices: