The European Commission is taking Romania to Court for a failure to comply with EU legislation on mining waste. The case concerns the Bosneag pond, a 102-hectare tailing pond that holds waste extracted from copper and zinc mines in Moldova Noua, the Caras-Severin County, and which is currently in a state of almost complete abandonment. The Commission opened infringement proceedings against Romania on this matter with a letter of formal notice in October 2012, followed by a reasoned opinion in February this year. Subsequently, Romania agreed that the Bosneag pond remained a source of pollution during windy periods and admitted the need for remedial measures. While some measures have been proposed, including for example a watering system, no tangible action has yet been taken....more »

Ligia Cecilia Popescu, Partner and Coordinator of the Litigation, Arbitration and Public Procurement Department within Wolf Theiss & Asociatii discussed about the key aspects in attracting European funds during a related conference organized by the Commercial Section of the Embassy of Austria in Romania. Her presentation, “Key elements in achieving performance in absorbing EU funds – a business perspective”, provided a legal perspective on the main issues which had previously lead to a poor absorption of EU funds, as well as potential solutions to improve the process. ...more »

The French group has acquired a 12,000 sqm space in the ParkLake shopping center where will open a new hypermarket, becoming co-owner of the retail project developed by Sonae Sierra and Caelum Development, states a press release. The amount of this transaction has not been disclosed yet, however, investments in the shopping center whose inauguration is scheduled for 2016 amount to 180 million euro. ParkLake will be located in Bucharest’s District 3, the Titan area, and will have a gross leasable area (GLA) of nearly 70,000 sqm. ...more »

Musat & Asociatii’s team coordinated by Dr. Gheorghe Buta (Partner) and Madalina Berechet (Partner), assisted by Angela Mare (Managing Associate) achieved another victory in court for Mircea Diaconu in his fight against the National Agency of Integrity (ANI). The Bucharest Court of Appeal dismissed as ungrounded the action initiated by the Agency requesting the court to quash the decision by which Diaconu’s tenure as Member of the European Parliament has been validated. Hence, Mircea Diaconu maintains his position within the European Parliamentary, as elected through the vote in May 2014. “The Court’s decision validates a public and democratic vote earned by Mircea Diaconu in the EU Parliament elections, with ANI’s accusations alleging that the office as Member of the European Parliament has been held illegally being dismissed as ungrounded by the court of law.  ...more »

The much-expected ‘re-writing’ of the Fiscal Code is little likely be approved by the Parliament by the end of this year, hence, any amendments to the existing one will be eventually made through an emergency ordinance in 2015, explained Dan Badin, Tax&Legal Partner-in-Charge with Deloitte Romania, during the company’s annual Legal & Tax conference. A new deferral in updating the Fiscal Code is a result of the slow decision-making process within the Parliament, as most of the related tax issues have been discussed during the consultations held with the business environment, stated Badin. ...more »

The Department of Energy within the Ministry of Economy has initiated the procedure for contracting legal services in view of the sale of newly issued shares subsequent to the capital increase of OMV Petrom. The share capital increase is equivalent to the value of the land whose ownership was attested to be OMV Petrom’s following the signing of the privatization agreement as per the acquisition of shares of ‘Petrom’ National Petroleum Company....more »

The Ministry of Finance issued a draft law for amending the Law no. 297/2004 on the capital market. The bill, which can be checked on the ministry’s website, is aimed at aligning the current legislation to the existing standards in order for Romania be ranked as an emergent capital market, thus increasing external visibility and attracting new investors. This legislative approach is part of a broader initiative of a working group lead by the Bucharest Stock Exchange and which comprises representatives of the domestic capital market, the Financial Supervisory Authority and of the National Bank of Romania....more »

The Competition Council has imposed financial sanctions on 11 media companies, the fines amounting to about 3.2 million euro (14.5 million lei). Brand Programming Network, B.V. McCann-Erickson, Groupm Media Operations, Initiative Media, Mediaedgecia Romania, Mindshare Media, Opti Media, Starcom Mediavest Group, United Media Services, Zenith Media Communications are the companies affected, according to a press release of the competition authority....more »

Radu Cataniciu, Partner with Cataniciu & Asociatii, explains to Which Lawyer in Romania how the new insolvency law impacts the public procurement procedures. The Law no.85/2014 brings many innovations and improvements to the insolvency legislation and unifies in one legislative act the procedure of insolvency prevention and the insolvency frame procedure along with the special procedures for the insurance/reinsurance companies and credit institutions and the insolvency cross-border procedure and, for the first time, the insolvency procedure for the corporate groups is regulated....more »

According to the EY M&A barometer for 2013 the number of closed transactions in Romania is 147, with an estimated market size of abount 1.9 billion USD. This figure is about 39 percent higher than in 2012, but mainly due to the UniCredit Tiriac – RBS Bank transaction.  Silviu Stoica, Partner with Popovici Nitu & Asociatii talked to Which Lawyer in Romania about the current trends in Romania's M&A market ...more »