Coronavirus - Government measures in key jurisdictions - Flipbook - Page 15
Belgium
8
Company
law matters
•
Have any measures •
been put in place
to accommodate
social distancing
(such as remote
general meetings)?
•
Recovery procedures in progress / to be initiated are made more flexible,
including at the level of the judicial officers.
•
Repayment plans are facilitated.
•
Moderation of the administrative fines related to road pricing.
•
Adaptation of the time limit to benefit from the favorable regime in the event of a
resale of a property within two years.
•
Exceptional reduction of the registration fee for mortgage mandates to 0%.
•
Reduction of the tax to 1/12 per month of compulsory closure for automatic leisure
equipment.
•
For more information, please view here.
The Belgian government published on 9 April 2020 a Royal Decree to allow
deviations from the conditions of convening shareholders’ meetings under the
Code of Companies and Associations, due to social distancing requirements.
In respect of shareholders’ meetings which have been called or will be called
between 1 March 2020 to 3 May 2020, or which must be held between 9 April 2020
and 3 May 2020, or which should have been held between 1 March 2020 and 9
April 2020, the following deviations are possible:
– Firstly, the shareholders’ meeting can be held remotely (through
videoconference), and/or through a proxyholder, even if the articles of association
does not provide this possibility.
– Secondly, the shareholders’ meeting can be postponed to a later date of the
choice of the company. In particular, for annual shareholders’ meeting which
needs to approve financial statements of the company and file them with the
National Bank of Belgium within six months following the closing of financial year,
a postponement of the approval and filing is possible within maximum 10 weeks.
However, certain general shareholder’s meetings (for example, when the net asset
drops below zero) cannot be postponed.
•
For more details on this royal decree, please refer to: Royal Decree No. 4
Government measures in key jurisdictions
15