Early 2017, we informed you that the Corporate Governance Committee had the intention to review the 2009 Belgian Code on corporate governance. Their idea was to update the 2009 Code taking into account (1) the legislative developments at Belgian and European levels and (2) the current revision of the Belgian Companies Code in order to maintain consistency between hard law and soft law.
This led to a first draft published in December 2017 and the launch of a public consultation inviting stakeholders to comment on the proposed revision.
Deminor consequently sent a number of remarks and emphasized the importance of protecting shareholders’ interests and going further than legal requirements.
On March 28, the Committee also held a public hearing in the presence of several Committee members available to answer questions about the project.
Deminor attended this event and Pierre Nothomb was able to share his views with the Committee, especially on the opportunity to implement recommendations addressing institutional investors, in the light of UK’s Stewardship Code.
The Committee will now revise the first draft based on the results of this consultation and while closely monitoring the long-awaited publication of the new Companies and Associations Code.
The new Corporate Governance Code should be published at the end of 2018 and should be made compulsory in 2020 (hence its name “2020 Code”), i.e. at the same time as the new Companies and Associations Code. Until 2020, companies may however adopt this new Code as their benchmark on a voluntary basis.
For more information on this topic, feel free to contact Stéphanie Abiraad (stephanie.abiraad@deminor.com).
