According to Oleg Efrim, the Managing Partner at Moldova’s Efrim Rosca Asociatii law firm, the primary topic of interest at the moment in the Moldovan legal community is the country’s newly modernized Civil Code which will become effective on March 1, 2019. According to Efrim, the new Code will be a significant upgrade to the existing law, which entered into force in 2003 as the country’s first following the fall of the Soviet Union. “It’s a substantial amendment,” Efrim reports, pointing out that the number of articles is increasing from the existing 1624 to 2671, and he says that "it is, indeed, a modernization of the Code.”
Efrim, who, in 2013, as the Minister of Justice in Moldova at the time, initiated the four-year working group that put the new Code together, concedes it will be "a real challenge for the entire legal community in Moldova.” Still, he insists, "the importance resides not only in the volume of the amendment, but in its quality,” and he claims that “my opinion is that Moldova will have one of the most modern Civil Codes in Europe.” According to him, in drafting of the law, the working group reviewed and drew from not only the judicial practices of the European Union and the EU directives of Consumer Law and Consumer Protection, but also to the Civil Codes of France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy. "After these past 15 years, experts and lawyers in Moldova had the opportunity to assess what we need conceptually, and the various amendments have been approved in a conscientious manner, instead of just being taken at random from other jurisdictions."
"Some of the institutions are excellently regulated, from my point of view,” Efrim says, “including, in particular, the freedom of contract area (which will now allow us to use the regulations and rules from other jurisdictions, which are commonly used for M&A transactions), and the means of obligation performance, and a new institution: Trusts.” And he believes the results will be immediate. "Without going into too much detail, these amendments will make our jurisdiction very attractive for foreign investment.”
Ultimately, Efrim says, things are better in Moldova than they were five years ago — in part because of actions taken five years ago. "One of these actions was the EU Association Agreement signing,” he says, “which led to an increase in investment and business with EU countries.”
