The Restructuring Directive of 20 June 2019 harmonises insolvency legislation for the first time at the European level.
An important part of this Directive concerns preventive restructuring frameworks, which aim to limit the unnecessary liquidation of viable companies.
In Belgium, this will mainly impact judicial reorganisation, and more specifically judicial reorganisation by means of collective agreement.
La directive du 20 juin 2019 relative aux restructurations harmonise pour la première fois la législation sur l'insolvabilité au niveau européen.
Une partie importante de cette directive concerne les cadres de restructuration préventive, qui visent à limiter la liquidation inutile d'entreprises viables.
En Belgique, cela aura principalement un impact sur la réorganisation judiciaire, et plus particulièrement sur la réorganisation judiciaire par accord collectif.
A recent law, which came into force on 21 July 2022, amends the regulation for the accounting professions with regard to their professional practice and the anti-money laundering prevention.
The law was enacted after the Constitutional Court ruled in two judgments that various provisions of the law relating to the audit profession and the anti-money laundering law were against the constitution.
Hereafter we discuss the impact of the new law on auditors, certified public accountants and the unregulated tax advisors.
On 19 March 2020, the European Commission adopted the Temporary Framework on State aid measures to support the economy in the current context of the COVID-19 outbreak ("Temporary Framework"). The Temporary Framework is based on Article 107(3)(b) TFEU and aims to remedy a serious disturbance in the European economy.
1 GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE
On 21 April 2022, the federal Chamber of Representatives adopted the Private Members’ Bill inserting Book 1 on “General provisions” of the Civil Code (Wetsvoorstel houdende Boek 1 “Algemene bepalingen” van het Burgerlijk Wetboek / Proposition de loi portant le Livre 1er “Dispositions générales” du Code civil – the Book on General Provisions) and that inserting Book 5 “Obligations” of the Civil Code (Wetsvoorstel houndende Boek 5 “Verbintenissen” van het Burgerlijk Wetboek / Proposition de loi portant le Livre 5 “Les obligations” du Code civil – the Book on Obligations) (for a summary of bot
Energy prices have soared over the last few months. Although this evolution has impacted all economic operators, energy-intensive companies are particularly affected. The Belgian legislator has therefore introduced a set of protection measures, including amongst others a so-called “temporary moratorium”. This moratorium provides amongst others protection against bankruptcy and judicial dissolution as well as against attachments on movable assets for energy debts.
How the Belgian Cour de Cassation qualifies a director of a company as an “enterprise”
Since the entry into force of the new Belgian Code of Economic Law (‘BCEL’) it is possible for a company director, in its personal capacity, to be qualified as an “enterprise” and consequently to be declared bankrupt.
The definition of an enterprise is set out in Article I.1, 1° BCEL and relates to the following organisations:
a) any natural person who independently performs a professional activity;
When a company faces financial distress, concessions are to be made and decisions to be taken in view of its turnaround. In the ordinary course of business, the shareholders bear the entrepreneurial risks and have the ultimate decision-making power. In judicial reorganisation proceedings, the risk and also the decision-making power, is shifted to the creditors as they are the ones having to make the efforts and concessions.
On 11 November 2021, the CJEU (C-340/20) ruled that the freezing of assets and economic resources under the EU restrictive measures (economic sanctions) precludes protective measures by creditors. Therefore, creditors should proactively seek protective measures or rely on a sanctions regime’s exception.
Restrictive measures