The Serbian Parliament terminated the state of emergency on 6 May 2020, following the flattening of the epidemic curve and the creation of conditions for the gradual attainment of collective immunity. Since the introduction of the state of emergency, the Serbian Government issued 44 regulations that were aimed at combating the COVID-19 crisis, including the health, safety, and economic measures, as well as to maintain the functioning of the judicial system and administrative authorities.

After almost two months, the state of emergency instituted because of the COVID-19 outbreak was revoked in the Republic of Serbia on 6 May 2020. Unlike the Decision on declaration a state of emergency from 15 March 2020, the Decision on revoking the state of emergency was adopted by the National Assembly. The Decision determined it will enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, which means that as of 6 May, state of emergency is no longer in effect in the Republic of Serbia.

The Republic of Srpska’s much-anticipated Law on Liquidation Procedure (the “Law”) entered into force in October 2019. The Law was adopted three years after the reform of the Republic of Srpska’s bankruptcy procedure and is part of ongoing reforms targeted at cutting costs and improving the overall efficiency of business management by providing new and simpler ways of conducting business.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia issued the decree on the extension of the deadline for local companies that employ new individuals on 24 April 2020, in order to prolong their possibility to apply for tax exemptions introduced at the end of last year.

As part of a package of economic measures worth EUR 5.1 billion, the Serbian Government adopted a decree on 16 April 2020 establishing a guarantee scheme for loans to be provided by local banks to businesses to reduce the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (the “COVID-19 Guarantee Scheme”).

Dentons, DGKV, Karanovic & Partners, and Ilej & Partners in cooperation with Karanovic & Partners advised Hungary's Optima Befektesi Alapkezelo on its acquisition of a 61.49% share in Globe Trade Centre S.A. from Lone Star Funds. Schoenherr advised the sellers on the deal.

Contributed by Karanovic & Partners.

Contributed by Karanovic & Partners.

Contributed by Karanovic & Partners.

The Government announced on 1 April 2020 its proposal of a Program of economic measures to reduce the negative effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and an attempt to support the economy of Serbia, split into four categories.

The Republic of Serbia has officially closed its border crossings for passengers in road, rail, air and water traffic at 8.00 a.m. on 20 March 2020. The passing of humanitarian aid and crossings of national importance that are approved by the competent authority are still allowed. International passenger traffic to and from the Nikola Tesla Airport has been suspended in accordance with the Government of Serbia’s decision on 19 March 2020 from 12.00 p.m. onwards.

Serbia recently reworked its Law on Trademarks, coming into force on 1 February 2020. What has changed? In local parlance: “Everything and nothing”. The changes are not extensive, but concern key features of the local trademark rules.

Karanovic & Partners has advised Sweden's Backer AB on the acquisition of shares in Serbia's Elektrotermija d.o.o.

Dragan Karanovic has been made the new Managing Partner of Karanovic & Partners, taking over from Rastko Petakovic, who served as Managing Partner for the past three years.

Claims from Loan Agreements are generally secured by establishing a mortgage over a certain property on the basis of a Mortgage Agreement or a Pledge Statement.

CEELM: Run us through your background, and how you ended up in your current role with Karanovic & Partners.

The significance of medical devices is most certainly on the rise, considering not only its importance to patients, for whom medical devices represent life enhancing products, but also developments in innovation, economics, and in the regulatory and legal sphere. Issues such as data privacy in the field of medical devices were not noticeable until connectivity became a trend in medical devices and the GDPR was adopted. Similarly, the possibility of a cyber-attack on a medical device connected to the Internet became a possibility. Even though the question of product liability has always been present, recent decisions by the European Court of Justice provided new interpretations of existing legal terms and, importantly, introduced product batch liability. 

Concerns about how the legal profession will be impacted by the ongoing technological revolution are rampant across the industry. Artificial intelligence, distributed ledger technology (blockchain), and robots, among other things, are already altering the way lawyers serve clients in fundamental ways, and the influence of these new tools and technologies will almost certainly increase in years to come.