The impact of the Directive on shareholders, companies’ directors and workers

As widely announced, the so-called “Proposal for a Directive on pre-insolvency proceedings” was made public before 2016 ended (on 22 november). With a view to a minimum harmonisation of substantive insolvency law, the future Directive aims to put in place common principles and rules to improve the efficiency of the Member States’ restructuring and insolvency laws, particularly in respect to preventive restructuring frameworks. It is hardly noticeable at first sight but the amendments put forward in the Proposal go far beyond the borders of insolvency or pre-insolvency law. They cross over to the fields of company law and even labour law, affecting not only the usual players (debtor and creditors) but also the other companies’ stakeholders, namely the shareholders, the companies’ directors, and the workers.