[BANKRUPTCY, INSOLVENCY & REHABILITATION PROCEEDINGS IN PORTUGAL] 71
Directive (EU) 2019/1023 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 (“Directive (EU) 2019/1023”). Furthermore, it amends the Insolvency and Corporate Recovery Code (“CIRE”), the Companies Code (“CSC”), the Commercial Registration Code, and other related legislation. • Regulation (EU) 2015/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of May 20th, 2015, on insolvency proceedings. The insolvency proceeding governed by the CIRE may be voluntary or involuntary, as it may be commenced on the debtor’s initiative or on any creditor’s initiative. In addition to the insolvency procedure itself, CIRE also provides for two special procedures. The first one is the PER (a voluntary procedure which only applies to companies), considering that only the debtor may submit the request to the court, pursuant to article 17-A of the CIRE. Such a request must include a written statement from the debtor and at least one of its creditors, expressing the intention to engage in negotiations leading to its revitalization through the approval of a recovery plan. The second special procedure is the special payment agreement procedure (which may apply to any debtor other than a company). The RERE is also a voluntary proceeding commenced by the debtor’s initiative. II. 1.STATUTORY INSOLVENCY AND LIQUIDATION PROCEEDING A debtor must request a declaration of insolvency within 30 days after the date of becoming aware of such insolvency, or on the date when he should have been aware thereof. The application must contain a series of mandatory elements and meet several requirements.
Natural persons who are not owners of a company on the date of insolvency are exempted from the duty to declare insolvency. When the debtor is the owner of a company, Portuguese law presumes that awareness of the insolvency occurs three months after the general failure to meet debts regarding taxes and social security payment and contributions; debts arising from an employment contract or from the breach or termination of such contract; or rentals for any type of hire, including financial leases; or instalments of the purchase price or loan repayments secured by a mortgage on the debtor’s business premises, head office or residence. Moreover, the declaration of insolvency of a debtor may be requested by the person legally responsible for the debts, by any creditor, even if conditional and whatever the nature of the claim, or by the Public Prosecutor's Office, representing the entities whose interests are legally entrusted to it, when any of the following occur: 1. General suspension of payment of due obligations; 2. Non-compliance with one or more obligations which, due to the sum involved or the circumstances of the non-compliance, demonstrate the debtor’s incapacity to promptly satisfy most of its obligations; 3. Abscondment of the owner of the company or the debtor’s directors or desertion of the company’s registered office or place of main business, related to the debtor’s lack of creditworthiness and in the absence of the appointment of a substitute of good standing; 4. Dispersal, abandonment, hurried or destructive liquidation of assets and fictitious constitution of credits;
ILN Restructuring & Insolvency Group – Bankruptcy, Insolvency & Rehabilitation Series
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