In the current energy context, the RePower Europe package talks about an accelerated permitting procedure for renewable energy in Europe, as an absolutely measure to accelerate the development of green energy projects. However, in Romania, the permitting process for such projects is long, bureaucratic and takes about 540 days.

Three European law firm partners walk into a Bar Association. No punchline here, just a fascinating look into how these partners came together on a mission to translate ICC arbitration rules into Hungarian. To mark the publication of the translated rules, one partner each from Bittera, Kohlrusz & Toth; LFB Laszlo Fekete Bagamery; and Jeantet – Avocats, brainstormed and co-organised a half-day arbitration conference at the headquarters of the Budapest and Hungarian Bar Associations in Budapest.

Although the Romanian law on transfers of undertakings has no more than two pages, it is notorious for its complexity, while the relevant case law is constantly developing. Briefly, if an undertaking is taken over by, or is transferred to, a new entity, the relevant employees are automatically transferred to the new employer, together with their existing rights provided under the individual employment agreements and the applicable collective bargaining agreement.

Change and unpredictability, among the top keywords that could best describe the past couple of years, did little to affect the overall Romanian M&A market. Publicly available figures show that dealmaking saw a strong rebound in 2021 in terms of deal numbers. The main sectors on investors’ radar were real estate and construction, IT&C, energy (with a growing focus on renewables), manufacturing and industrials, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare.

The Supreme Court dealt with the liability of the insolvency administrator and the debtor's managing director (CEO) after the declaration of bankruptcy and their obligations to proceed with due managerial care.

As the usage of remote work tools increases, so does the demand for distance communication between employer and employee. Many would say that this is already a fact and on-going employee issues are easily addressed by sending an e-mail or making an entry in the company’s human resources management system. Yet the question remains if this is permissible under Bulgarian labor law and if it would be accepted by the Bulgarian state authorities in case of a dispute.

On 21 March 2022, new rules for personal data transfers to countries outside the United Kingdom (“UK”) came into force. Transfer of the respective data according to the previous rules will be possible until 21 September 2022, while starting from 22 September 2022 only new rules will apply to all new transfers. In addition, any contract on transfer of personal data concluded pursuant to the previous rules will be valid until 20 March 2024, while as of 21 March 2024 the parties thereto shall be liable to conclude a new contract, according to the new rules.

The EU has committed itself under the European Green Deal to decarbonizing the European economy and becoming carbon neutral by 2050. To this end, an accelerated transition from fossil fuels as a primary energy source to renewable energy will be required. The integration of intermittent and variable renewable energy sources (e.g., wind and solar) into the power system requires greater flexibility in supply and demand in order to stabilize the power grid, prevent extreme price fluctuations and maintain security of supply and electricity price affordability. Short-term energy storage and multi-month seasonal storage is one of the ways to achieve the goal of such greater flexibility.

Recent developments such as economic crises, pandemics, climate crisis, green transformation and the increasing importance of compliance with strategies such as European Green Deal necessitates a sustainable and innovative finance approach in the world and in our country's capital markets. Therefore, the need for long-term funds to finance the investments required for the transition to a low-carbon economy and projects that contribute to environmental sustainability increases the importance of capital markets. In order to accelerate the sustainable development of our country, in the 2022 target announcements and draft guidelines of the Turkish Capital Markets Association and the Capital Markets Board; it is seen that innovative capital markets financing products related to environmental and social problems such as climate change are supported.

On 31 May 2022 the EU’s securities markets regulator, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), published its supervisory briefing to ensure convergence in the supervision of investment funds with sustainability features, and in combating greenwashing by investment funds.

According to the Supreme Court, it is. In the case under review, a settlement agreement was concluded between the employer and an employee challenging their dismissal by the employer sending a scan of the signed copy of the agreement to the employee in an e-mail attachment, to which the employee's lawyer responded by e-mail confirming that the agreement was approved and signed by the employee.

The Budapest Chamber of Commerce (“BCC”) in May 2022 proposed the change of the system of the itemised tax of small businesses (“KATA”). The main goals of the change are to keep the advantages of the system, but also to prevent and eliminate unlawful tax avoidance.

Facial recognition system is considered an artificial intelligence solution empowered by a camera system, which can identify persons viewed based on image data stored in a related data base. Such systems have already been implemented around the globe in many countries and generally faced severe criticism, especially in Western democracies. Naturally, facial recognition systems have the capability of helping to prevent terrorist attacks and similar severe crimes an detect suspects and other persons of interest. In practice, however, such systems often provide inaccurate or biased results.

In 2019, two EU directives were adopted which must be transposed into Hungarian labour law within a short deadline. In order to comply with EU Directive 2019/1152 on transparent and predictable working conditions and EU Directive 2019/1158 on work-life balance for parents and carers, the modifications of the Labour Code should be adopted by the beginning of August 2022. According to the current information, no substantive work has been started by the Hungarian legislator to modify the Labour Code in order to ensure the compliance with the provisions of the EU Directives.

Significant amendments were introduced into the Bankruptcy and Enforcement Code numbered 2004 ["BEC”] on November 30, 2021. One of these changes was regarding entitling debtors to sell their own seized property by consent.

In addition to its big impact on our social life, WhatsApp messenger (“WhatsApp”) or any other online messaging platform also is used in business life in order for people to communicate quickly and easily. Nowadays, many people are sending work related messages to their colleagues, discuss work related topics, sharing work related documents or conducting their meetings via WhatsApp or any other online messaging platforms.

Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Regulation on Criteria for Granting Incentives to the Employers who Employ Newly Inhabited Persons in the Republic of Serbia (hereinafter referred to as the “Regulation”),  published in the Official Gazette of the RS no. 67/22 and entered into force on 18 June 2022. 

Small and medium-sized enterprises could save tens of billions of forints a year by reducing employment administration, according to the latest proposal by the Ministry of Finance.