On July 30, 2020, Law no. 155/2020 amending and supplementing Law no. 123/2012 on electricity and natural gas (“Romanian Energy Law”) and other regulatory acts entered into force. Part of the changes brought to the Romanian Energy Law are aimed at implementing the regulatory framework necessary for the development of an integrated EU energy market through common energy market rules and a cross-border infrastructure, pursuant to the Clean energy for all Europeans Package, including inter alia, Regulation (EU) 2019/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the internal market for electricity (“Internal Market Regulation”) and Directive (EU) 2019/944 on common rules for the internal market for electricity (“Internal Market Directive”). Such framework is aimed at ensuring the necessary structure for consumers to become more active and to effectively contribute to keeping the electricity system stable, through a balance of the supply and demand.

The slow and lengthy process of completing the cadastral works and real estate publicity seems to affect not only the private property, but also the public one. In this context where the lands are not delimited and registered with the national Land Book Registry (“Land Book”), both the private investments and the projects of public interest and utility are hampered. Therefore, there was necessary to establish a complete and optimal legal framework, capable to ensure the complete evidence of assets falling under the public property of waters. The regime of waters and land areas of riverbeds are under the provisions of Water Law no. 107/1996 (“Water Law”). This background given, Law no. 122/2020 amending and supplementing the Water Law (“Law 122/2020”) was enacted by the Romanian Parliament and published in the Official Gazette of Romania on July 13, 2020.

Stratulat Albulescu has successfully represented Romanian facility management company Compania Romprest Service S.A. against the Ministry of European Funds before the Bucharest Court of Appeal.

On 10 August 2020, the European Commission uploaded on its website the public versions of 2 clearance decisions regarding Romanian State aid support measures in the context of the COVID-19 pandemics:

In May 2020, a group of Romanian senators have proposed a legal enactment to prohibit the sale of shares owned by the Romanian state for a two-year period.

BPV Grigorescu Stefanica has advised Romanian start-up Innoship on its acquisition of EUR 550,000 in seed funding from GapMinder VC.

Despite the constant update of the public procurement legal framework, the Romanian authorities have signalled several issues related to the public procurement contracts granted to certain companies, in circumstances which are not able to comply, in all cases, with the general principles of transparency and equal treatment.

“Romania's Liberal government has recently announced a new program of investment," says Horea Popescu, CMS Partner and Head of Corporate M&A in CEE. “The goal behind the program is an economic relaunch. The government has only published a white paper so far, which is currently being debated and commented on.” 

In a recent warning, the European Union Commission sent infringement letters to Romania and seven other countries alerting them that they had failed to notify the EC of any implementation measures related to the transposition of the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (EU Directive 2018/843, or AML 5) into national law, and instructing them to proceed with the transposition, which was supposed to have happened by January 10th, 2020, immediately.

The primary legislation governing insolvency and restructuring proceedings is Law 85/2014 on preventing insolvency and insolvency proceedings (the ”Insolvency Law”).

The amendments to the state aid schemes governed by G.D. 807/2014 on investment in assets and by G.D. 332/2014 on creation of workplaces that were proposed on 17 July 2020 by the Romanian Ministry of Public Finances (MoF) have just become enforceable.

Zamfirescu Racoti Vasile & Partners has successfully represented Intermed Consulting & Management before the High Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania in a case involving industrial park real estate tax exemption.

Popovici Nitu Stoica & Asociatii has successfully represented the interests of the Association of Romanian Construction Companies and several other large construction companies before the Bucharest Court of Appeal.

Filip & Company has advised SoftwareONE Holding AG, a global provider of end-to-end software and cloud technology solutions, on the acquisition of B-lay, a provider of Software Asset Management advisory and managed services for SAP and Oracle solutions.

Clifford Chance Badea has advised the Kingspan Group, a company specialized in high-performance insulation and building envelope solutions, on the acquisition of TeraSteel SA, TeraSteel DOO Serbia, and Wetterbest SA. Schoenherr advised TeraPlast on the deal.

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New provisions regarding environmental studies

On 12 July 2020 Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services (Regulation 2019/1150) became applicable. The aim of the Regulation is to ensure the fair and transparent treatment of business users by online platforms.