Preventive Restructuring as a New Trend of Insolvency Legislation

The need to harmonize corporate insolvency legislation has led to the adoption by the European Union of the relevant regulations - the Recommendation on a New Approach to Business Failure and Insolvency and the Directive 2019/1023 on preventive restructuring frameworks, on discharge of debt and disqualifications, and on measures to increase the efficiency of procedures concerning restructuring, insolvency and discharge of debt, and amending Directive (EU) 2017/1132 (Directive on restructuring and insolvency). The purpose of the article is to reveal the essence of preventive restructuring, to assess the main differences in the definition of preventive restructuring in accordance with the provisions of the EU Directive and the Code of Ukraine on bankruptcy procedures. In this work, preventive restructuring is considered as the main tool for timely prevention of bankruptcy, the implementation of which in the EU member states has significant differences. An overview of the provisions of EU regulations on preventive restructuring and the process of their implementation in the member states was done. A comparative analysis of the EU directive on the mechanisms of preventive restructuring and certain provisions of the Code of Ukraine on bankruptcy procedures related to reorganization prior to the commencement of bankruptcy proceedings was carried out. It was found that the Code lacks such principles as early appeal, protection of new financing, taking into account the peculiarities of small and medium-sized businesses. Differences in the use of other principles were also identified. Ukrainian legislation encourages debtors to liquidate their business rather than to carry out financial restructuring. Taken into account the European vector of development, today Ukraine has a real chance to improve insolvency legislation based on the provisions of the EU Directive.