The Government of the Republic of Serbia rendered the new Ordinance on Conditions, Manner and Procedure for Awarding the State-owned Agricultural Land for Use for Non-agricultural Purpose, that came into force on 10 September 2022.

Cobalt has advised PRFoods on the sale of its Swedish business to Vattudalens Fisk.

Boyanov & Co has advised Yara International on the sale of Bulgarian and Romanian businesses Yara Bulgaria and Yara Digital Romania to the Nik Group. Wolf Theiss advised the buyer.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia rendered the new Ordinance on Conditions, Manner and Procedure for Awarding the State-owned Agricultural Land for Use for Non-agricultural Purpose, that came into force on 10 September 2022.

The Ministry of Economy has officially announced the opening of the call for submission of applications under the state aid scheme regulated by Government Decision no. GD 959/2022 for financing assets and/or salary costs. The period for submitting financing requests is scheduled between 1 November 2022 to 16 December 2022, when investors may file the relevant documentation.

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.

Gessel has advised BNP Paribas Bank Polska on its capital investment in Autenti. Kondracki Celej reportedly advised Autenti on the deal.

Radu Taracila Padurari Retevoescu has advised the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on its EUR 25 million loan granted to Banca Transilvania. 

Former CMS Senior Counsel Csongor Tompa has joined Bird & Bird’s Budapest office as Head of the Banking & Finance and Capital Markets practices.

PRK Partners Advises Ceska Sporitelna, Komercni Banka, and UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia in the sale of bonds issued by EPH Financing.

Former CMS Senior Counsel Csongor Tompa has joined Bird & Bird’s Budapest office as Head of the Banking & Finance and Capital Markets practices.

Former Sorainen Senior Associate Dalia Augaite has joined TGS Baltic as an Associate Partner in Lithuania, at the beginning of September.

According to the latest Position published by the Serbian Commission for the Protection of Competition, it is prescribed whether and in which cases the scope of one concentration can be several undertakings that are not considered interrelated.

This article provides an up-to-date overview of the currently existing FDI regimes in Hungary.

This article provides an up-to-date overview of the currently existing FDI regimes in Slovenia.

Former Compliance Partners Partner Jaroslaw Nowacki has founded Tau Nowacki focused on "operational compliance and AML in fintech and crypto."

Allen & Overy, in partnership with Clearstream and Euroclear, has advised on the drafting and implementation of bondholder tax certification procedures in the Czech Republic.

The Law No. 7416 on Amendment of the Law on Regulation of Electronic Commerce (“Amendment Law”), published in the Official Gazette of July 7, 2022[, introduces new obligations for e-commerce intermediary service providers and e-commerce service providers. Most of the provisions of the Amendment Law will enter into force on January 1, 2023 but the Amendment Law also stipulates different effective dates and transition periods for certain obligations. Amendment Law’s liability regime is tiered in line with the criteria of net transaction volumes and order numbers in a calendar year. E-commerce intermediary service providers and e-commerce service providers under this regime should follow certain compliance steps in due time.

The highlight of Drakopoulos’ work this year would be corporate and M&A, according to Managing Partner Panagiotis Drakopoulos, as a result of the overall Greek business climate and the country’s good position geopolitically, making it particularly attractive for foreign direct investments.

Gessel has advised BNP Paribas Bank Polska on its capital investment in Autenti. Kondracki Celej reportedly advised Autenti on the deal.

Sorainen, working with Norton Rose Fulbright, has advised Oxlylabs on its acquisition of the Webshare Software Company. Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe reportedly advised the seller.

PRK Partners Advises Ceska Sporitelna, Komercni Banka, and UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia in the sale of bonds issued by EPH Financing.

CMS has advised the Saint-Gobain Group on the conclusion of a 15-year virtual power purchase agreement for the acquisition of renewable energy from Tion Renewables' onshore wind farms in Poland. Dentons advised Tion Renewables.

Gorzelnik Nentwig Ziebinski has advised Equinor Group company Wento on its sale of a 28-megawatt solar photovoltaics portfolio to Modus Asset Management. Dentons has advised the buyer.

Following a long lasting process since 2010 the European Court of Human Rights (the “ECHR”) held that Slovakia violated right to property due to the refusal of its courts to enforce an International Chamber of Commerce (the “ICC”) arbitral award ruling that the National Property Fund of Slovakia (the “NPF”) was due to pay BTS Holding (“BTS”) approx. EUR 1.9 million plus interest. (the “Decision”)

We can probably all agree that no one likes bad surprises, and the same especially holds truth with respect to unexpected outcomes of legal proceedings. When it comes to civil proceedings before Croatian courts, so-called “surprise” decisions were recently introduced into Croatian legislation by Articles 5 and 367a of the new Croatian Civil Proceedings Act which entered into force on 19 July 2022.

Asters has advised Olson Family Trust Director Chuck Olson prior to and during his visit to Ukraine on the implementation of the first phase of the trust’s humanitarian mission. 

Former Filip & Company Of Counsel Oana Voda has joined Dentons’ Bucharest office as Head of Public Procurement.

CMS has advised Vier Gas Transport on its successful participation in a tender for selecting a consultant for monitoring and control of the implementation of a commercial dispatcher center for the Interconnection Greece-Bulgaria project held by ICGB AD.

Suciu Popa has successfully represented Iris-Aly Explorer in a dispute related to the concession of public property goods.

Contributed by Guleryuz & Partners.

Contributed by Senica & Partners.

Contributed by CMS.

Former KPMG Lawyer Romana Szutanyi has joined Rowan Legal as Head of Employment.

One of the questions that is often risen in practice is whether there is an obligation to conclude a contract with an individual who is registered as a legal representative, i.e., director of a company, and who does not establish an employment relationship in that company. In relation thereto, there are also inquiries whether it is mandatory to provide for a compensation for the work of a director who is not employed with the company, as well as what are the tax obligations of the company regarding the compensation that a director receives for performing the respective capacity.

Based on Directive 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 July 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers and repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU (“Work-Life Balance Directive”), as of 2 August 2022 all Member States shall apply rules to improve work-life balance for parents and carers. In particular, Member States must ensure for working fathers at least 10 working days of paternity leave around the time of birth of the child and the paternity leave should be compensated at least at the level of sick pay.

Life Sciences R&D has consistently been touted as one of the Czech government’s top priorities – and the markets and investors have not been indifferent. We reached out to several experts to check up on the overall health of life sciences R&D in the Czech Republic and learn how that priority translates into practice.

Kinstellar has advised telecommunications operator Kyivstar on its acquisition of a controlling stake in digital healthcare company Helsi.

Erdem & Erdem has advised the Acibadem Healthcare Group on its acquisition of the Private Orthopedia Hospital in Adana.

Cobalt has successfully represented Latvian news magazine Ir before Latvia’s Supreme Court in defamation proceedings.

Havel & Partners has advised Skoda Auto in resolving disputes over the use of the Skoda sign with engineering companies from the Skoda Group.

Sorainen has represented Nigerian state-owned company Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria in an oral hearing before the CJEU in a case against aviation company Lufthansa.

Sorainen has represented Nigerian state-owned company Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria in an oral hearing before the CJEU in a case against aviation company Lufthansa.

Greenberg Traurig has advised the Trigea Real Estate Fund on its acquisition of a logistics park near Poland's Tricity. DLA Piper reportedly advised the seller.

Clifford Chance has advised Prologis on its EUR 1.585 billion acquisition of Crossbay's urban logistics portfolio from Crossbay and Mark. Dentons advised the sellers.

Pohla & Hallmagi has advised Deck Marine Systems on an agreement with Fairbanks Morse Defense with the aim to expand the capabilities of FMD to serve unmanned marine vehicles. Jansson Munger McKinley & Kirby reportedly advised FMD.

BNT Attorneys in CEE has advised Aros Marine on the insolvency proceedings of Germany’s MV Werften group.

The Elmacioglu Law Office has announced the formation of a collaborative partnership with Seoulsolution.

SSK&W Stoklosa Syp & Wspolnicy has advised CofounderZone and several business angels on their latest investment in Mentorist.

Ban, S. Szabo, Rausch & Partners has advised Focus Ventures and Hiventures on their investment in Continest Technologies.

Kochanski & Partners has advised Klima Energy on leading a PLN 70 million investment round into SunRoof. Gessel advised SunRoof.

Dentons has provided pro bono legal representation to whistleblower Maria Koranova, an employee of a state-funded organization founded by Slovakia’s Ministry of Health.

Sorainen has provided pro bono legal assistance to the Papardes Zieds association on launching its new website.

Sorainen has provided pro bono legal assistance to Aswell on setting up the terms and conditions for the corporate application users.

Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Panattoni Europe on the construction of a Tychy production facility for Hager.

Kocian Solc Balastik has advised the Passerinvest Group on its acquisition of Prague’s Gamma office project from Immofinanz. Wilsons advised the seller.

Imagine receiving a letter that your real estate located in Bulgaria will, in fact, “change” its location within the neighborhood. This can come up as a shock to any international investor in Bulgaria. Such companies might wish to finance certain entrepreneurial construction activity in Bulgaria, and therefore, acquire one or more plots of land. This sort of legal conundrum is indeed possible in Bulgaria and this article will look into its intricacies.

One of the questions that is often risen in practice is whether there is an obligation to conclude a contract with an individual who is registered as a legal representative, i.e., director of a company, and who does not establish an employment relationship in that company. In relation thereto, there are also inquiries whether it is mandatory to provide for a compensation for the work of a director who is not employed with the company, as well as what are the tax obligations of the company regarding the compensation that a director receives for performing the respective capacity.

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.

Arrangements and consultations on the draft act amending the VAT Act and certain other acts, i.e. the so called SLIM VAT 3 (draft No. UC128), were scheduled to complete by 26 August.

Havel & Partners has advised Skoda Auto in resolving disputes over the use of the Skoda sign with engineering companies from the Skoda Group.

Gessel has advised BNP Paribas Bank Polska on its capital investment in Autenti. Kondracki Celej reportedly advised Autenti on the deal.

Sorainen, working with Norton Rose Fulbright, has advised Oxlylabs on its acquisition of the Webshare Software Company. Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe reportedly advised the seller.

Dentons has provided pro bono legal representation to whistleblower Maria Koranova, an employee of a state-funded organization founded by Slovakia’s Ministry of Health.

Hosted by Penkov, Markov & Partners, nine lawyers from Bulgaria – six working in-house and three in private practice – sat down for a round table conversation to discuss the EU Whistleblowing Directive and how it will impact companies in the country.

The Law on whistleblowers’ protection was approved on 29 June 2022 by the Chamber of Deputies.