In two judgments published on 4 February 2016, the European Court of First Instance upheld the EU-Commission’s previous assessment regarding the illegality of the so-called “restructuring clause” (“Sanierungsklausel“) of § 8c para 1a German Corporate Tax Code (“Körperschaftssteuergesetz“, “KStG“).
EU-Commission as an unlikely icebreaker for pre-insolvency restructurings?
On 30 September 2015, the EU-Commission issued an action plan for the “realization of a capital markets union”. Therein, the Commission announces the presentation of a “legislative initiative” for the last quarter of 2016 which shall include the EU-wide implementation of “early restructuring procedures”. This initiative might present an ice-breaker for the German debate over a “pre-insolvency restructuring procedure” which has been stalled since 2011 after the ESUG.