On 19 May 2022, the Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Regulation on the temporary measure of limiting the price of gas and compensating for the difference in the price of natural gas, procured from imports or produced in the Republic of Serbia, in case of disturbances on the natural gas market, which regulation was published in the Official gazette of the RS no. 59/2022.

On 18 May 2022, a Bill on Amendments to the Law on foreigners (hereinafter: “Bill”), was submitted to the Parliament, introducing legislative solutions for obtaining visas and residence permits for digital nomads.

The global events and current energy crisis have demonstrated once again the imperative of continuous development of the energy sector and its modernization, which is both time-consuming and financially burdensome, but inevitable for the sustainability of the economy and overall society. It has additionally pointed out the real need for the equal or quasi-equal level of development of the electricity, gas and oil sector and increased dynamic development of the renewables energy market and, the imperative of having a firm orientation to diversification and establishment of different routes and different sources of supply. There is  a necessity of having a long-term strategic determination to stability and security of supply and national strategic plan to achieve it.

Serbian Personal Income Tax Law and Serbian Corporate Income Tax Law, as well as the Serbian Law on Mandatory Social Insurance Contributions, prescribe tax and social insurance contributions related reliefs for companies that conduct activities of research and development in the Republic of Serbia.

More countries, that have, until recently, been considered the pandemic’s epicenter, are easing COVID restrictions. Serbia takes the same direction and cancels majority of COVID-19 related restrictive measures.

Energy has been Jankovic Popovic Mitic’s busiest practice, according to Senior Partner Jelena Gazivoda, mainly driven by Serbia’s long-standing aspiration to achieve energy stability and security of supply and bolstered by recent legislative amendments and the expected energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

Jankovic Popovic Mitic has successfully represented FCC Kikinda before a Serbian court of first instance in a criminal case concerning environmental charges.

Usage of corporate cards issued by goods and services providers to their corporate clients, have been recognized and regulated by the latest amendments of relevant Serbian regulations related to fiscalization and to VAT.

Electronic measurement of working hours based on processing of location data is permitted under data protection and labour regulations under the following conditions:

The Government of Montenegro passed a Bill of the Law on Electronic Document („Bill“) which is now waiting to be passed by the Parliament of Montenegro. Among other things, the Covid-19 epidemic revealed the weaknesses of the public administration in terms of the digitalization of the public administration but also of the legal framework concerning the creation, usage and archiving of electronic documents both in the public administration as well as in private legal affairs, which makes the adoption of this Bill of great importance for the continuation of the digitalization process.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Regulation on Conditions and Criteria on Harmonized State Aid for Environmental Protection and Energy Sector (“Official gazette of the RS” no. 99/2021, hereinafter referred to as: “Regulation”).

For the existence of joint controllership, it is sufficient that both controllers determine purposes and means of processing in one or more segments of processing activity. Lack of control over data flow in other segments of processing activities does not release controllers from responsibility for the part/s where they determine purposes and means of processing jointly. This means that in one part of processing activity, controllers can act as joint, while in other parts they can act as independent controllers. The purposes and means of processing for controllers can be different. It is important that decisions of both controllers on purposes and means of processing are inextricably linked, meaning that processing of personal data in the particular case would not be possible without the said decisions of the controllers.

Contributed by JPM Jankovic Popovic Mitic.

JPM partner Nikola Djordjevic and Senior Associate Marija Vukcevic single out and analyze official clarifications and opinions on the application of financial regulations for January 2022, related to taxes, which have been published in the latest newsletter of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Serbia.

Serbian Republic Geodetic Authority has recently added various new online features and services available both for professional users and citizens, in its overall efforts to implement the principle of development of electronic services.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many changes in doing business and, therefore, also had a significant impact on regulating the mutual rights, obligations, and responsibilities deriving from employment.

The introduction of new e-services of the Serbian Business Registers Agency and the beginning of the application of online-based fiscalization are rapidly bringing the Serbian corporate environment to the corporate standards of developed countries.

Pursuant to the Law on utilization of renewable energy sources (“Official gazette of the RS” no. 40/2021, “Law on RES”), Government of the Republic of Serbia has in November 2021 adopted two new regulations: i) the Regulation on Market Premium and Feed-In Tariff and ii) the Regulation on Market Premium Model Agreement.