The last few years have seen a long list of investors turning their eyes to the Greek renewable energy source market and an abundance of new projects being developed throughout the country – to the extent that one would assume an excessive capacity of the Greek distribution network. Sadly, that is not the case. The occupation of grid space has been very loosely regulated for quite a long time, and final grid connection offers (GCOs) have been granted to licensed producers largely on a first come first served basis, and without any specific priority requirements.

In the pursuit of promoting renewable energy sources and achieving goals like decarbonization, as well as more ambitious ones such as energy independence, the European Union constantly both encourages and imposes achieving these objectives on the member states. As the whole world was recently shaken by pandemics and war, we are now facing an energy crisis worsened by these tragedies. In this context, in the second half of last year, Romanian legislators adopted several pieces of legislation aimed at mending various blockages encountered in practice by RES developers.

According to the national energy mix, only 5.6% of energy was produced by renewable sources in 2021 in the Czech Republic. Most energy was produced by nuclear sources (40.4%) and fossil fuels (54%).

The renewable energy sector in Ukraine has been one of the most promising sectors of the economy over the last decade. Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has impacted the lives of every citizen and the country. Renewable energy projects have also been subject to adverse effects due to military actions.

The EU intends to implement a horizontal regulation on the qualification, recycling, and waste management of batteries (Battery Regulation) aiming to replace the existing Batteries Directive. Once the EU approves the Commission’s proposal, the new regulation will make the batteries more sustainable throughout their entire lifecycle, according to EU officials. Given Hungary’s significant role in battery production, we summarize the additional statutory obligations and consequences that could be imposed on battery producers.

Bulgaria has great potential and is currently attracting major investors interested in large-scale renewable energy projects. Currently, over 1,500 megawatts of solar and over 800 megawatts of wind projects are operating. Still, the country’s power generation is highly dependent on its baseload power capacity coming from thermal power plants (over 3,600 megawatts). However, to meet the net zero economy targets, renewables could be the solution to replace these capacity volumes. Thus, at least 2,600 megawatts in RES capacity are expected to be installed by 2025, to allow Bulgaria to meet its target of 30.33% of energy produced from renewable sources.

The ongoing energy crisis in Europe has underscored the urgent need to limit the reliance on imported energy sources. In a country lacking traditional energy sources like Moldova, the way to achieve that is to push for a rapid and sharp increase in renewable energy generation.

Lithuania has never been among the leading countries in the field of energy from renewables. Dependence on imported electricity is still high, with just around 30% of electricity demand being produced locally. The installation of various power plants was slow and did not have a strong economic basis, with the main opportunities arising in wind and solar energy.

Slovakia experienced a boom in renewables in 2010/11, then it became silent. New rules, a government decision, the EU recovery fund, and the increasing energy costs have led to a renaissance of renewable energy in Slovakia.

In May 2022, the European Commission announced the REPowerEU Action Plan, proposing a package of measures to accelerate the energy transition, made even more urgent by the high dependence on Russian gas. Given the urgency of deploying renewable energy installations, the EC highlighted the generation of electricity from solar energy (i.e., solar power plants, photovoltaics) as a priority and key issue. Such technology has a minimal environmental impact (especially when installed on existing built surfaces), high public acceptance, the fastest technical feasibility, and, last but not least, a low cost (the price of the technology has fallen by around 82% over the last decade).

The mandatory fee-based publication in the print medium of the Official Journal of the Wiener Zeitung (Amtsblatt der Wiener Zeitung) ("Official Journal") is going to be replaced by free-of-charge publication on the new Electronic Announcement and Information Platform of the Federation ("EVI").

Migration is a phenomenon as old as humanity itself. In modern times, a good life today means a good job.

April 2023 – On 7 April 2023, the Turkish Competition Authority (“Authority”) published its Preliminary Report prepared within the scope of the “Online Advertising Sector Inquiry” (“Report”) that it initiated on 21 January 2021.

On 6 January 2023, the new Law on Capital Market started to apply in Serbia (except for certain provisions delayed further until the accession of Serbia to the EU). This law is adopted as a part of a comprehensive reform of the capital market legal framework in Serbia and introduces a completely new set of rules in line with the relevant EU regulations governing markets in financial instruments (MiFID I and MiFID II), prospectus, investor-compensation schemes, transparency, securities settlement, and market abuse.

In its recent judgment of 2 March 2023, the CJEU ruled on the concepts of daily and weekly rest period and their relation. The judgment fundamentally contradicts the approach reinforced in the Hungarian Labour Code this year; therefore the legislator has to change the concept of rest periods to comply with the EU Working Time Directive.

(In this article, we analyse the judgment 02/03/2023 - MÁV-START Case C-477/21)

On 4 May 2023 the Bulgarian Act on the protection of persons who report or make public information on breaches ("Whistleblower Protection Act" or "WPA")1 adopted earlier this year enters into force, giving effect to the provisions of Directive (EU) 2019/19372 and imposing a number of obligations on employers in both the public and private sector.

Law No. 7451 on the Amendment of the Law on Organized Industrial Zones and Certain Laws (“Law No. 7451“), published in the Official Gazette dated 10 April 2023 and numbered 32159, introduced significant amendments to energy legislation, and the Law on Organized Industrial Zones and entered into force on the same date.

The Ministry of Finance published, at the end of -March 2023, its eleventh Regulation on interest rates which are considered to be in line with the "arm’s length" principle. The Ministry of Finance, i.e. the Minister issues this Regulation every year and it pertains to the interest rates for that year.