In Bulgaria, one ordinary and two extraordinary parliamentary elections were held in the span of eight months in 2021, and the country is now preparing for yet another extraordinary election on October 2, 2022. Which outstanding legislative packages are critical – considering the absence of regular parliamentary activities – and what are their implications for the country?

Did You Know that, according to the Activity Rankings function of the CEELMDirect website, Clifford Chance has worked on 23 reported Banking/Finance deals in CEE so far this year – the most of any firm – with Dentons, which has worked on 22 such deals so far this year, right behind?

Schoenherr has advised Eurobank Greece on the sale of the Eliade Tower office building in Bucharest to One United Properties in a share deal. The Law Chamber advised One United Properties on the acquisition.

Divjak Topic Bahtijarevic & Krka has advised Allianz on the sale of its 11.72% stake in Zagrebacka Banka to the UniCredit Group and on Allianz Holding Eins’ purchase of Zagrebacka Banka’s 16.84% stake in insurance company Allianz Croatia. Schoenherr reportedly advised UniCredit on the transactions.

Kubas Kos Galkowski has advised IMS Budownictwo on the sale of office building B in the Zablocie Business Park complex in Krakow to the Uniqa Group. Schoenherr reportedly advised Uniqa.

The Amendment of the Austrian Copyright Act fundamentally revised the Copyright contract law. An entire series of new provisions for the protection of authors was implemented. But what does this mean for (future) license holders? Let us take a look!

RPCK Rastegar Panchal has advised Tierglueck on the sale of its Zoo & Co store in Klosterneuburg to Fressnapf Handels. Schoenherr advised Fressnapf on the acquisition.

Radu Taracila Padurari Retevoescu has advised Integral Venture Partners on its investment in Medima Health. Schoenherr reportedly advised Medima Health majority shareholder Morphosis Capital Fund I.

Following the tendency among EU states to improve labour legislation, through its 28 July 2022 law ("Law 243/2022"), the Moldovan Parliament passed certain amendments to the Labour Code. These were motivated by the need to align the existing legislation to current realities and the recommendations of the International Labour Organization.

RPCK Rastegar Panchal has advised YodelTalk Limited and its founders on the sale of the company to Sendinblue. Schoenherr and, reportedly, Paul Hastings advised Sendinblue on the acquisition.

Schoenherr has advised the managers on the EUR 750 million issuance of 2.5% mortgage pfandbriefe due 2030 by the Erste Group Bank. Wolf Theiss reportedly advised Erste.

The Czech Act on Ultimate Beneficial Owners (the "UBO Act") has been effective since 1 June 2021. Not even a year and a half later, Czech lawmakers introduced an amendment to the UBO Act (the "Amendment") after significant pressure from the European Commission to comply with the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive ("AMLD5").

During the Covid-19 pandemic, in every industry where it was possible employers transferred their employees to work from home.

On 14 September 2022 the European Commission ("EC") published a proposal for a Regulation on an emergency intervention to address high energy prices ("Emergency Intervention Regulation" or "EIR"). The EIR requires EU Member states to implement three different measures: (i) Reduction in demand for electricity, (ii) Capping market revenues for the generation of electricity from inframarginal technologies (renewables, nuclear and lignite), and (iii) Collection of a monetary solidarity contribution from the fossil fuel industry. The EC says that the intervention measures can be based on Art 122 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union ("TFEU") which establishes a competence for crisis intervention in the energy sector. However, it is questionable if the EC's view is going to withstand a judicial review since Art 122 TFEU has a very limited scope of application and some of the proposed intervention measures appear to go far beyond that scope.

As of 1 July 2022, Hungary's already existing financial transaction tax has been extended to payment service provision, credit and loan provision, currency exchange and mediated currency exchange services provided on a cross-border basis in Hungary. Provision of cross-border services means financial services provided in a country other than the country where the seat, place of business, head office, or branch of the service provider is located. Basically, this means that non-Hungarian service providers providing such services to Hungarian customers will most probably be affected by this extension.

In its most recent decision in connection with the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive (the Habitats Directive), the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) found that environmental organisations (EOs) – contrary to the principles of process prerequisites in the Austrian legal system – do not have to prove an interest in legal protection.

Schoenherr, in cooperation with Moravcevic Vojnovic and Partners, has advised Greiner Packaging International on its acquisition of Serbian PET flake producer Alwag from Aling-Conel and Reiwag Facility Services. The Stanivukovic law office advised majority shareholder Aling-Conel on the sale.

PLK Advokati has advised Montenegrin media companies Daily Press and Televizija Vijesti on the sale of a 51% stake to United Media. Schoenherr reportedly advised United Media.