Entry into force of new pledge law postponed

The entry into force of the Act of 11 July 2013 (amending the Civil Code with regard to real securities on movable property, i.e. the so-called new "Pledge Law") was recently postponed by the Justice Commission. This law, which thoroughly overhauls the Belgian security law, was supposed to enter into force on 1 December 2014. According to the new rules that the Act of 11 July 2013 introduces, a pledge henceforth comes into existence through the agreement between pledge holder and pledgor and no longer through the actual dispossession. In order to make the pledge agreement opposable to third parties, registration is required in the yet-to-be-set-up pledge register. So, for example, floating charges and pledges on agricultural operations henceforth must be recorded in this register. All of this is supposed to make the rules concerning the anteriority of pledges clearer and more coherent. The rule of opposability by means of dispossession continues to apply only for pledges on debt claims and pledges on physical movable assets. Under this new legislation, the setting up of the aforementioned pledge register is thus a crucial step. And that´s where the problem lies . . . because in the meantime it has become clear that this pledge register is not going to become operational on time. So the entry into force of the new legislation is being postponed as well. The new date of entry into force has been provisionally set for 1 January 2017, i.e. more than two years after the initially anticipated date for entry into force.