Mihaela Popescu has joined Idea Bank Romania as its new General Compliance Head.

On 27 May 2020, Order of the Minister of Environment, Water and Forest no. 1.134 from May 20, 2020 was published in the Official Gazette no. 445. (the “Order no. 1.134/2020”).

Cazacu, Manolache, Popa has advised a Romanian subsidiary of Raiffeisen Leasing on the sale of a large plot of land in Aleea Viilor in Timisoara, Romania.

DLA Piper has advised Early Game Ventures on financing provided to Humans DNA, a Romanian startup developing the technology for generating synthetic media. ROCA X and other angel investors also participated in the EUR 330,000 financing round.

On January 29, 2020, the European Commission adopted the Communication that endorsed the Cybersecurity of 5G networks EU Toolbox of risk mitigating measures (“5G EU Toolbox”).

The former MPR Partners | Maravela, Popescu & Roman law firm in Romania has announced "the cessation of the professional partnership with attorney Ioan Roman," and its consequent rebranding as MPR Partners | Maravela, Popescu & Asociatii.

While following the adoption of the Temporary Framework various EU countries have rather quickly implemented state support schemes that also cover large corporations, Romania has so far only focused on SMEs.

Kinstellar has advised FirstFarms, a Denmark-based land and agriculture investor in Eastern Europe, on the sale of a farm covering approximately 1,700 hectares in western Romania.

Stratulat Albulescu has advised CODA Intelligence on a EUR 800,000 seed funding round led by Romanian Early Game Ventures and including technology investment fund ROCA X and other angel investors. DLA Piper advised Early Game Ventures on the deal.

According to Art. 44 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation), ˝Any transfer of personal data which are undergoing processing or are intended for processing after transfer to a third country or to an international organization shall take place only if, subject to the other provisions of this Regulation, the conditions laid down in this Chapter are complied with by the controller and processor, including for onward transfers of personal data from the third country or an international organization to another third country or to another international organization.˶

Simina Mut has been promoted to Partner at Reff and Associates, the law firm representing the Deloitte Legal network in Romania.

CEE Attorneys Boanta, Gidei si Asociatii has advised the Sparking Capital investment fund on financing granted to the Romanian start-up K Factory, the developer of a digital platform that aims at increasing the performance and productivity of production companies. BPV Grigorescu Stefanica advised K-Factory on the deal.

On 11 June 2020, the Romanian Government approved the Memorandum “General principles concerning the implementation of a support mechanism such as Contracts for Difference for the production of low-carbon electricity”. While a mere memorandum aimed at outlining an intention, the document is a milestone in the process of discussing a new support mechanism for investors in low-carbon technologies, initiated a few years ago.

With growing expectations of a global recession generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, avoiding disruptions to the food supply chain and food production continues to be a priority. One of the key measures for ensuring food availability is to maintain and support agricultural activities and markets.

Tuca Zbarcea & Asocatii has successfully represented the Romanian Tennis Federation, led by former world tennis star Ion Tiriac, against several challenges to the registration of the new board.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Romanian authorities enacted several tax measures in order to prevent the business environment from collapsing. By way of example, some of the already implemented measures are the following: (i) recalculation of the specific annual tax in order to reduce the impact on cash flow; (ii) granted tax benefits to certain categories of employees; (iii) extension of the deadlines for submitting the annual financial statements, etc.

The events occurring in the last months have certainly generated a series of impediments to the performance of the economic operators’ activities, both private and state-owned companies, while the most affected being those from the first category.

The Romanian Government recently enacted the Emergency Government Ordinance No. 74/2020 (“EGO 74/2020”), which entered in force on 18 May 2020. An expected and necessary piece of legislation, EGO 74/2020 amends the Energy law No. 123/2012 (“Romanian Energy Law”) by expressly allowing bilateral power purchase agreements (“PPAs”) to be directly negotiated outside the centralized markets, although not for all electricity generation capacities, as further detailed below. Until now all wholesale electricity transactions had to be concluded exclusively on the centralized markets in a transparent, public, competitive and non-discriminatory manner, with limited exceptions generally for small generators.