In 1874, a French writer, forerunner of science-fiction literature, named Jules Verne (1828-1905) wrote in his famous novel The Mysterious Island about a world where “water will one day be used as a fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen, which constitute it, used alone or simultaneously will provide an inexhaustible source of heat and light of an intensity that coal cannot have.” More than 110 years after his death, hydrogen is a hot topic in the global energy industry.

Romanian lawyer Anela Musat has joined Blue Horizon as its General Counsel in Zurich, Switzerland.

Four regulatory acts of interest to both employers and employees, were published in the Official Gazette.

Several measures related to the Labour Code and other employment legislation have been adopted by the Romanian Government and have immediate effect on employment relationships.

In the context that more and more people and companies are investing in cryptocurrencies and given the fact that non-cash payments are becoming the new standard in business transactions, the national legislator has intervened in order to offer a larger protection to these types of transactions, the legislative amendments being necessary in order to cover the full spectrum of electronic criminality.

Following intensive negotiations between the business community and the Romanian government, the Romanian parliament has issued a bill on the enforcement of a tax amnesty for tax liabilities, including late payment interest and penalties, imposed by the tax authorities following the reassessment of daily allowances as salary income.

The pandemic context and its economic implications prompted in 2020 and 2021 several legislative measures to alleviate fiscal burden both through tax facilities, such as amnesties or regulation of new cases and conditions for debt rescheduling, and through amendments concerning deductibility for tax purposes. This type of measures fall under the scope of the newly enacted Government ordinances nos. 8 and 11, published on August 31, 2021 in the Romanian Official Gazette.

Directly negotiated power purchase agreements with physical delivery (“PPAs”) have been a sensitive topic in Romania since 2012, when they were prohibited under the new energy law no. 123/2012 (the “Energy Law”) and continue to be a hot topic today, even though (long term) PPAs negotiated over the counter are expressly allowed under art. 3 (o) of Regulation (EU) 2019/943 (“Internal Market Regulation”), as they fall under the concept of “long term supply agreements”. This is mainly because Romania has stumbled over the last 2 years in reintroducing the directly negotiated PPAs back into the domestic legislation, in line with EU rules and EU market practice.

Being the country with the highest growth rates in the EU, Romania is going strong despite the global pandemic conditions, according to MPR Partners Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner Alina Popescu.

European Directive no. 2019/904 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment was transposed into Romanian law as of 2 September 2021 by Ordinance no. 6/2021 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment (the “Ordinance”).

On 31 August 2021, Government Ordinances nos. 8/2021 and 11/2021, amending the Fiscal Code and the Fiscal Procedure Code, were published in the Official Gazette no. 832/31.08.2021.

Following the adoption of the GDPR, an important new element was brought into Romania’s legal framework – the required designation of a Data Protection Officer (DPO), which is mandatory in some cases.

Few global industries have been as strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as the hotel industry. All over the world, chains and bespoke hoteliers have had to face the impact of travel restrictions on bookings, in most cases leading to dire falls in occupancy rates and, subsequently, income. Now that the pandemic has been wreaking havoc for over a year, how is the hotel industry in CEE coping, and what options do hoteliers have? We spoke with three CMS Partners – Ana Radnev, Gregor Famira, and Lukas Hejduk – to get their opinions on the current situation and outlook on the future of the sector.

Doru Toma, Project Manager of Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Leaders for Justice program, provides insight into the program’s values, goals, and structure.

Regional periodical league tables ranking M&A activity through the lens of the law firms advising on the deals are often dominated by Baltic law firms, with the CEELM Index special issue of the CEE Legal Matters magazine reflecting the same trend. To better understand why that is so, we spoke with several Partners – from both Baltic firms and other CEE jurisdictions.

On July 7, 2021, CEE Legal Matters reported that Zamfirescu Racoti Vasile & Partners and Simmons & Simmons had advised ALRO on a seven-year USD 40 million corporate loan from the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank to Romanian aluminum producer ALRO, part of Vimetco Group, for its capital investment program. CEE In-House Matters spoke with Dragos Voncu, Legal Director at the Vimetco Group, to learn more about the matter.

Starting this August, the fiscal unity system concerning the corporate income tax becomes functional in Romania, further to the enactment of the procedure for the implementation and management of such system through Order no. 1191 issued on August 6, 2021 by the National Agency for Fiscal Administration.

RTPR’s Costin Taracila Talks About The Deal of the Year in Romania.