Belgium had accumulated a significant legislative backlog within insolvency law. The European Directive 2019/1023 on restructuring had to be transposed into national law by the member states by 17 July 2022 at the latest. The Belgian government did not submit a draft bill to this effect until 20 March 2023. This draft has since been voted into law and will enter into force on 1 September 2023.

Several amendments are being made to (among others) Book XX of the Belgian Economic Law. The main amendments are briefly discussed below.

The European Court of Justice’s (“ECJ”) Plessers judgment seemed to cause a serious threat for the applicability of the Belgian reorganisation procedure by transfer under judicial supervision, and the right of the interested buyer of the debtor’s activities to choose which particular employees it would take over (see hereand