The rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is a public health challenge that has affected all of us globally. It has required governments, and particularly healthcare systems, to respond swiftly and in a coordinated way to ensure that they are properly mitigating and responding to the evolving situation to ensure the wellbeing of their citizens.
Covid-19 was declared a public health emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organisation on 30 January 2020. Speaking at a Covid-19 media briefing on 2 March 2020, the Director General of WHO emphasised that the virus is capable of community transmission but can be contained with the right measures.
This is above all a human and social crisis, necessitating some significant changes in the way everyone goes about their daily lives. As efforts to manage the spread radiate across the world, the impact to businesses and economies has become increasingly significant.
Our clients are assessing (as we are ourselves), on a continuous basis, how to address the threat posed by Covid-19 to their workforce, customers, suppliers and wider stakeholders. Financial markets are experiencing considerable turbulence. The situation has the potential to generate both a supply-side and a demand-side shock.
Every organisation will have individual and sectoral considerations relevant to their particular circumstances, and each organisation will likely approach this evolving situation through their business continuity plan.
However, these plans may not foresee a situation of this complexity, magnitude and duration.
The topics covered below offers some practical guidance around how organisations might approach the impact of Covid-19 from a governance and risk perspective, together with some answers to some of the legal questions which we have been receiving over the last few weeks.
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As Covid-19 continues to spread across the region, each organisation should ensure it has in place a robust organisational resilience plan which addresses the following issues.
Following the Covid-19 outbreak, the Federal government, as well as the Flemish and Walloon governments, have introduced a series of exceptional and targeted temporary measures aimed at cushioning the economic shock for Belgian businesses and preventing them from ending up in a deep economic crisis.
With the most recent government measures following the Covid-19 pandemic now affecting all aspects of life, many employers are confronted with a variation of practical questions. Here we identify the key legal issues and the practical actions employers can take.
This section provides some guidance on how to navigate through the tumultuous times ahead, both for listed and nonlisted companies. It focuses on four substantial issues companies are already facing or may face in the near future due to the Covid-19 outbreak: disclosure of inside information, financial reporting, shareholders’ meetings and M&A transactions
The Covid-19 outbreak has significant and potentially long-lasting implications for the financial sector as it is called upon to buttress the “real economy” while itself navigating the crisis conditions.
The regulatory response to this challenge has been two-fold:
This section provides an overview on:
Each organisation should have in place a crisis management policy to ensure that key employees and management are familiar with its operation.
