The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“EBRD”) and the World Bank are among the international financial institutions spearheading a 3-billion-euro plan to wean North Macedonia off its reliance on coal. The “Just Energy Transition Investment Program” (JET-P) plan follows the footsteps of several other countries in efforts to retire coal power plants, with the joint support of the government, as well as public lenders and private investors.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) is located in the so-called "Western Balkans" region, borders the EU, and has an area of 51,209 km2. Its highly favorable geographical location for harnessing energy potentials has positioned B&H as the only country in the surrounding area with a significant surplus in exporting electrical energy. The water potential is represented by a large number of rivers suitable for building hydroelectric power plants, and substantial potential exists in the areas of wind energy (due to the position of the Dinaric mountain range) and solar energy (averaging over 2000 sunny hours per year).

On November 28, 2023, the President signed two laws that modify the procedure for opening and formalizing inheritance. These laws were developed to protect the rights of heirs in times of war or a state of emergency.

On 14 November 2023, the Hungarian Government presented a new bill on the entry and residence of third-country nationals in Hungary.

Both consumers and companies that are using the software in everyday activities, either for business or pleasure, usually do not own the software, but only have limited rights granted by a license agreement with specifically defined scope and terms of use. Why the misunderstanding? In general, software is a set of instructions or programs used to operate computers and execute specific tasks. It is an intangible object, opposite to hardware compartments. With the latter, the ownership perception is clear when you are buying it. On the other hand, software brings confusion to end-users - is it purchased or licensed? Because the difference is essential.

.. as well as other legislation news and case law in litigation:

The Hungarian Ministry of Finance published its draft legislation for the implementation of the global minimum tax rules in Hungary for public consultation in October 2023. The package also contained some limited reasoning and impact assessment and stakeholders had one week to comment on the proposal.

In preparation for Expo Belgrade 2027 (hereinafter “Expo”), a specialized international exposition that is scheduled to be held in Belgrade from mid-May to mid-August, 2027, the Government of the Republic of Serbia has decided to provide incentives for new accommodation that will be necessary for hosting the mentioned event.

In order to boost corporate lending and thus increase economic competitiveness, the legislator recently implemented changes to the Hungarian Companies Act. From 1 January 2024, companies will have to provide additional information about the finances of the company in the registration or modification procedures. In this article, we summarize the new rules and the related deadlines.

We're sending off 2023 with the news that by the beginning of next year at the latest we will finally have a new European regulation on artificial intelligence (AI) coming into force within two years (the EU AI Act). On 14 June 2023, the European Parliament approved its negotiating position on the EU AI Act and since then, the talks have begun with EU countries in the Council on the law's final form. The EU AI Act is intended as a fundamental and harmonizing legislative text. But is it really so and what do we read between the lines in the new regulation?

Pursuant to the Presidential Decree on the Increase of the Required Minimum Capital Amount for Joint Stock and Limited Liability Companies numbered 7887 published in the Official Gazette dated 25 November 2023 and numbered 32380 ("Decree"), the required minimum capital amounts set out in the relevant articles of the Turkish Commercial Code numbered 6102 ("TCC") for joint stock and limited liability companies have been increased.

Greenwashing is an umbrella term for misleading environmental claims. A claim is any promotional communication that can be communicated in advertisements, marketing materials, product manuals, prospectuses for investors, recruitments ads, annual reports, on packaging or brands themselves.

The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) is meant to make digital markets fairer and more competitive. How DMA does this is simple: the European Commission designates the “gatekeepers” (mostly the big tech companies), imposing on them new obligations such as mandatory interoperability of gatekeeper’s services and preventing the gatekeeper from favoring its products and services against similar services or products offered by third parties on the gatekeeper’s platform.

In the Official Gazette of RS no. 92/2023, dated October 27, 2023, amendments and supplements to the Law on Health Insurance were published, becoming effective on November 4, 2023 (“the Law“).

Due to Polish regulations on takeover offers for publicly traded companies, public to private transactions now carry a heavier risk of failure, understood as the inability to delist the company from the exchange. The bid for shares of TIM S.A., recently extended until 6 December 2023, may be a case in point. Any investor who gets involved in a tender for shares of a listed company needs to ponder the risk that, once the transaction is finalised, they will acquire a controlling stock in a listed company, which may still be subject to a restricted trading regime applicable to public companies for quite some time.

On October 26, 2023, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia passed new amendments to the Law on the Protection of the Right to a Fair Trial (hereafter referred to as the “Law"), which were published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia No. 92/2023.

The Law on Amendments to the Law on Tobacco (“the Law”) was published in the Official Gazette of the RS no. 92/2023 of October 27, 2023. The subject amendments entered into force on the eighth day upon the day of publishing i.e., on November 4, 2023, with several exceptions.

On August 25, 2023, the Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Personal Data Protection Strategy for the period 2023-2030 (“Strategy”).