CEE Legal Matters
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On 31 December 2021, Emergency Ordinance no. 143/2021 amending Electricity and Natural Gas Law no. 123/2012 and amending certain regulatory acts (“GEO 143/2021”) was published in the Official Gazette of Romania no. 1259 and entered into force. GEO 143/2021 is intended to transpose into national law Directive (EU) 2019/944 on common rules for the internal market for electricity and amending Directive 2012/27/EU (“Directive 944/2019”).
On 25 May 2022, Law no. 157/2022 („Law 157/2022”) amending Law no. 256/2018 on certain measures necessary for the implementation of oil operations by offshore oil perimeter owners (“Offshore Law”) was published in the Official Gazette of Romania no. 516 and entered into force on the same date.
Relatively recently, the legislative process has once more turned its attention to the former Draft Law amending Law no. 186/2013 on the establishment and operation of industrial parks (DL-x no. 250/2014) adopted by the Senate on 28 April 2014 and by the Chamber of Deputies, as decisional chamber, on 4 May 2022 ("Amending Law"). The Amending Law will enter into force after promulgation by the Romanian President, who, nevertheless, has the prerogative of sending it back to the Parliament for re-examination.
The past months have brought some important decisions from European data protection authorities (“DPA”) with respect to the use of cookies and the transfer of personal data outside the EEA, especially to the USA. This article aims to highlight the context and content of the decisions in question.
Bondoc si Asociatii has advised the Bucharest Municipality on the private placement and admission to trading of 55,500 bonds with a total issuance nominal value of RON 555 million. The issuance was intermediated by a syndicate of BRD Groupe Societe Generale and Raiffeisen Bank. Dentons advised the banks.
The first article of our own REMIT series is available here. It provides an overview of the REMIT core concepts, including the novelties brought under the latest edition of the ACER Guidance published on 22 July 2021 and the main conclusions of the 2021 REMIT Forum. This second article of our REMIT series presents (i) a more detailed analysis of REMIT in Romania, (ii) a practical perspective on the sanctioning regime applied by various NRAs, including the Romanian NRA, and (iii) the overall conclusions of our analysis.
The end of year 2021 marked the 10th anniversary of the enactment of EU Regulation No. 1227/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on wholesale energy market integrity and transparency (hereafter “REMIT” or “the Regulation”). On this occasion, the 5th REMIT Forum was organized as a series of virtual events on 25, 26 and 28 October 2021 (“2021 REMIT Forum”). The introductory webinar to REMIT and the main plenary session were followed by special interest groups sessions on data, reporting and technology as well as on the 6th Edition of ACER Guidance on the application of REMIT (“ACER Guidance”). Conclusions of the 2021 REMIT Forum will be revealed in different contexts throughout our own series of articles aimed at marking the occasion.
Hydrogen seems to become the new trend in sustainable energy production and there is an effervescence of clean hydrogen production projects across the world. Thus, it is estimated that clean hydrogen could meet 24% of energy world demand by 2050 and there are 750 hydrogen projects in the pipeline of the European Green Hydrogen Alliance. With the European Green Deal aim of climate-neutrality by 2050, decarbonizing the energy sector, which accounts for 75% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is an essential step, hydrogen being regarded as a key component to deliver decarbonized energy.
Individuals who are insured under the applicable laws shall benefit from medical leave and allowance for taking care of a cancer patient over 18 years of age, if they accompany the patient to surgery interventions and to treatments prescribed by the specialist physician.
Significant changes to the legal framework governing the electricity sector were enacted at the end of 2021 under Government Emergency Ordinance no. 143/2021 (Ordinance 143) and ANRE Order no. 137/2021 (Order 137). Among these changes, two categories are of outmost importance for producers, as detailed below.
On 31 December 2021, Government Emergency Ordinance no. 143/2021 for the amendment of Law no. 123/2012 on electricity and natural gas, as well as for the amendment of other regulatory acts (“GEO 143/2021”) was published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 1259 and entered into force on the same date.
As part of the Digital Single Market Strategy established at EU level, in the last days of year 2021, the Romanian Government approved two important pieces of regulatory acts in the consumer protection field, which transpose the corresponding European Directives.
Former Managing Counsel Ioana Katona has been promoted to Partner at Bondoc si Asociatii. She is a lawyer "within the [firm's] Litigation and Arbitration department ... and focuses on administrative and tax law, energy, health, insolvency, and civil law litigation cases, including real estate and corporate disputes."
Until November 2021, crowdfunding activities (investment-based or lending-based) have not benefited from a dedicated regime and may interfere with the EU banking and financial services rules, triggering ultimately significant risks to all parties involved.
Four regulatory acts of interest to both employers and employees, were published in the 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.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a lot of practical and legislative changes. Still, even if the virus complicated the overall environment (to which other factors contributed, such as elections followed by a change of government), Romania remains a place with significant business opportunities.
The first part of July 2021 marks an important step at the level of the EU in its road towards the European Green Deal objectives. On July 14, 2021, the European Commission (EC) announced the rather complex set of reforms under the Fit for 55 package. Only a week before, the EC issued the Renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy setting forth the main steps going forward towards placing ESG-disclosures and sustainability matters at the heart of financing system and economy in the EU.
Bondoc și Asociații SCA is a leading Romanian law firm advising private corporations, public entities and lending institutions in the development of significant and increasingly integrated projects in a wide range of practice areas, including corporate and commercial law, M&A, banking & finance (including also structural funds and state aid), energy, capital markets, competition law, labor, real estate, IT&C, regulatory and compliance. Its lawyers are specialized in providing integrated advice on virtually every legal aspect associated with complex cross-border transactions, as well as domestic projects.
We have the experience and necessary resources to advise private corporations, public entities and financial institutions in their cross-border expansion, in the development of significant and increasingly integrated projects.
In terms of M&A transactional work, our team has been involved in many significant transactions covering a broad range of industries.
We are one of the few firms capable of assisting in a professional manner on virtually any type of M&A project in any industry in Romania and of any size, including with respect to highly regulated sectors or in connection with public authorities.
We have very strong departments in all support areas needed for such transactions, including without limitation competition, commercial law, real estate, labor law, banking &finance, energy, environment, and other regulatory.
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