Official Journal of the European Union

C series

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C/2025/39

6.1.2025

(Joined Cases C-289/23 and C-305/23,

Corván and Bacigán)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Judicial cooperation in civil matters - Directive (EU) 2019/1023 - Procedures concerning restructuring, insolvency and discharge of debt - Article 1(4) - Subject matter and scope - Extension of procedures to insolvent natural persons who are not entrepreneurs - Article 20 - Access to discharge of debt - Article 23(1), (2) and (4) - Derogations - Exclusion of specific categories of debt from discharge of debt - Natural person who has become insolvent - Good faith of the debtor - Conditions for access to discharge of debt - Exclusion of claims governed by public law)

(C/2025/39)

Language of the case: Spanish

Referring courts

Juzgado de lo Mercantil no 1 de Alicante and Juzgado de lo Mercantil no 10 de Barcelona

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicants: Agencia Estatal de la Administración Tributaria (C-289/23), S.E.I. (C-305/23)

Defendants: A (C-289/23), Agencia Estatal de la Administración Tributaria (C-305/23)

Operative part of the judgment

1.Article 23(2) of Directive (EU) 2019/1023 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 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) must be interpreted as meaning that the list of circumstances set out in Article 23(2) is not exhaustive and that the Member States, when transposing that directive into their national law, have the power to adopt provisions which restrict access to the right to discharge of debt to a greater extent than that provided for by the earlier national legislation, by denying or restricting access to discharge of debt, by revoking the benefit of discharge or by providing for longer periods for obtaining a full discharge of debt or longer disqualification periods in circumstances other than those listed in Article 23(2), provided that those circumstances are well-defined and that such derogations are duly justified.

2.Article 23(1) and (2) of Directive 2019/1023 must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which, in the context of the transposition of that directive, requires the debtor to pay non-preferred claims governed by public law following insolvency proceedings in order to be able to benefit from a discharge of debt, excludes access to the discharge of debt in circumstances where the debtor has acted negligently or imprudently, without having acted dishonestly or in bad faith, and excludes access to discharge of debt where, during the 10 years preceding the application for discharge, the debtor has been penalised by a final administrative decision for a very serious tax offence, or for a social security or labour offence, or where the debtor has been the subject of a final decision to enforce secondary liability, unless that debtor has, on the date on which that application was submitted, paid in full his or her tax and social security debts, provided that such derogations are duly justified under national law.

3.Article 23(2) of Directive 2019/1023 must be interpreted as precluding national legislation which excludes access to the discharge of debt in a particular case, without that exclusion having been duly justified by the national legislature.

4.Article 23(4) of Directive 2019/1023 must be interpreted as meaning that the list of specific categories of debt set out in Article 23(4) is not exhaustive and that the Member States have the power to exclude from discharge of debt specific categories of debt other than those listed in that provision, provided that such an exclusion is duly justified under national law.

5.Article 23(4) of Directive 2019/1023 must be interpreted as not precluding national transposing legislation which provides for a general exclusion, from discharge of debt, of claims governed by public law, on the ground that the satisfaction of those claims is of particular importance for a fair and cohesive society, based on the rule of law, except in very strict circumstances and with very strict quantitative limits, irrespective of the nature of those claims and the circumstances in which they arose, and which, consequently, restricts the scope of the national provisions relating to the discharge of debt applicable to that category of claims before the adoption of that legislation, provided that that exclusion is duly justified under national law.

6.Article 23(4) of Directive 2019/1023 must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which lays down a general rule excluding claims governed by public law from discharge of debt, in so far as it accords preferential treatment to public creditors over other creditors, provided that such an exclusion is duly justified under national law.

7.Article 23(4) of Directive 2019/1023 must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which provides for a limitation on discharge of debt for a specific category of debts by establishing a ceiling above which that discharge is excluded, without that ceiling being fixed on the basis of the amount of the relevant debt, provided that that limitation is duly justified under national law.

8.Directive 2019/2013 must be interpreted as meaning that, where a national legislature decides to exercise the option provided for in Article 1(4) of that directive and extends the application of procedures leading to discharge of debt incurred by insolvent entrepreneurs to insolvent natural persons who are not entrepreneurs, the rules made applicable to those natural persons by virtue of such an extension must comply with the provisions of Title III of that directive.

* Language of the case: Spanish.

(1) OJ C 329, 18.9.2023.

(2) The names of the present cases are fictitious names. They do not correspond to the real names of any party to the proceedings.

ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/39/oj

ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)

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