Crenguta Florea and Ovidiu Serban have been promoted to Partner at Zamfirescu Racoti Vasile & Partners as of March 1, 2022.

Radu Taracila Padurari Retevoescu, Mar 4, 2022

Former Ijdelea Mihailescu Partner Anca Mihailescu has joined Noerr in Romania as an Associated Partner and Head of the firm's Energy practice in Bucharest. She is joined by Associates Ana-Maria Albu and Diana Maria Bejenaru.

Hydrogen seems to become the new trend in sustainable energy production and there is an effervescence of clean hydrogen production projects across the world. Thus, it is estimated that clean hydrogen could meet 24% of energy world demand by 2050 and there are 750 hydrogen projects in the pipeline of the European Green Hydrogen Alliance. With the European Green Deal aim of climate-neutrality by 2050, decarbonizing the energy sector, which accounts for 75% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is an essential step, hydrogen being regarded as a key component to deliver decarbonized energy.

Romanian lawyer Maria Bucur has joined global provider of integrated solutions for the alternative investment industry Alter Domus Netherlands as Legal Manager in the Private Equity and Corporates team.

Digitalization and technology have seen incredible evolutions over the past years worldwide. This development has fostered the perfect environment for the gig economy to be able to sustain incredible growth. Short-term working agreements between companies and workers, which are paid after every undertaken task, are at the foundation of the gig economy and they seem to be more popular with every passing day. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to have been yet another factor that allowed this market sector to reach new heights, with more and more people turning to online platforms as an additional source of income. These people are generally labeled as ‘platform workers.’

More than 15 years ago, when I graduated from law school in Romania, there were few opportunities for a young lawyer. You could either be an apprentice for a senior lawyer, your ‘master’ as they were called, trying to ‘steal know-how’ from anywhere you could, or, for the luckier ones, you could be employed by one of the only two business consulting law firms that were on the market – a national one and the only international law firm – Linklaters. I was one of the lucky ones. I passed my bar exam and started working as a junior lawyer in the latter. And thus, my journey as a CEE lawyer began.

Paul Buta has been appointed to Managing Partner, while Alexandru Terta, Iuliana Iacob, and Andrei Ormenean made Partner at Musat & Asociatii.

Ordinance No. 11/2022 for the amendment and completion of certain normative acts, as well as for the amendment of several deadlines (“GO 11/2022”) was published In the Official Gazette No. 96/2022. This ordinance brings amendments and completions to both Law No. 227/2015 regarding the Fiscal Code (“Fiscal Code”) as well as to Law No. 207/2015 regarding the Fiscal Procedure Code (“Fiscal Procedure Code”).

Often associated with public sector emergency services, on-call work is being increasingly used by private sector employers to meet their business needs and ensure that unexpected problems or requests are immediately resolved.

Individuals who are insured under the applicable laws shall benefit from medical leave and allowance for taking care of a cancer patient over 18 years of age, if they accompany the patient to surgery interventions and to treatments prescribed by the specialist physician.

Like many other European countries, Romania is struggling to implement the EU Whistleblowing Directive and accommodate this game-changing perspective on issues such as corporate fraud and non-compliant business environments. In April 2021, Romania issued a first draft law, which was hotly debated and criticized for reasons including the imbalance between the obligations imposed on the private sector and the scope of the upcoming law.

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), the pandemic’s legal implications, and energy are the hottest topics in Romania right now, with public procurement being a common thread, according to Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii Litigation Partner Dan Cristea.

Significant changes to the legal framework governing the electricity sector were enacted at the end of 2021 under Government Emergency Ordinance no. 143/2021 (Ordinance 143) and ANRE Order no. 137/2021 (Order 137). Among these changes, two categories are of outmost importance for producers, as detailed below.

The state of alert that followed the state of emergency has been extended several times during the last year and a half by Government Decisions. Some of these decisions were annulled by the competent courts (even if the court rulings are not final). Also, there are ongoing litigation proceedings aiming at challenging the legality of such Government Decisions. In this context, one would legitimately ask: what effect would have the annulment of the Government Decisions extending the state of alert on the validity of the building permits and town planning certificates which were prolonged during the state of alert?

On January 18, six leading real estate lawyers in Romania sat down for a virtual round table moderated by CEE Legal Matters Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea. The conversation focused on the current state of affairs in the real estate sector, looking at who the main players are, the hottest assets, deal-making trends in the sector, and more.

Romanian taxpayers had an exciting start to the year with the Government introducing changes to the country's main tax laws – the Fiscal Code and the Tax Procedural Code. These amendments, which follow others announced at the end of last year, were introduced in accelerated fashion, having been debated for only a few days prior to adoption.

Stratulat Albulescu's former Counsel Adriana Dobre and former Managing Associate Tudor Ciambur have been promoted to Partner at the firm.