On 6 March 2024, the Ministry of Energy received approval from the European Commission (the “Decision“) for the contract-for-difference financing scheme in support of onshore wind and solar PV installations to promote the transition to a zero net-zero economy. On 27 March 2024, a non-confidential version of the Decision was published in the State Aid Register on the Commission’s competition website.

As everybody knows, grid connection is a big challenge, perhaps the biggest challenge, the renewables encounter nowadays in Romania and elsewhere. According to the data available on the Romanian TSO website, over 20 GW of wind and solar projects seem to have obtained grid connection endorsement (Romanian: aviz tehnic de racordare – “ATR”) to the extent the total installed capacity in the country is about 18.5 GW and the consumption does not expect a serious take-off in the foreseeable future. An even bigger capacity might be in the queue to obtain ATR.

A new piece of the complex puzzle of public private partnerships in Romania came recently into the form of a new law, namely Law no. 7/2024 for the approval of Government Emergency Ordinance no.39/2018 on PPP (“Law 7/2024”), which brings significant amendments to the PPP regime. Also, in order to further support the recourse to the PPP tool, the Public Investment Management Unit within the Ministry of Finance commissioned a technical assistance project with DG Reform following which a comprehensive package of guides were published on 9 February 2024 on the website of the Ministry of Finance, with the aim to facilitate the understanding by the public sector of this tool, in order to increase its use in practice.

On 1 February 2024, the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) in Romania published for consultation an order aimed at approving new rules in the power grid connection sector.

Filip & Company has advised Fondul Proprietatea on the sale of its minority shareholding in Engie Romania in a transaction exceeding EUR 86 million. Bondoc si Asociatii reportedly advised Engie.

Bondoc & Asociatii has advised Solarealize on the sale of a project portfolio of approximately 250 megawatts planned capacity.

Bondoc si Asociatii has advised RetuRO Sistem Garantie Returnare as the sole administrator of the deposit-return system implemented in Romania on the engineering, procurement, and construction contract for the technical infrastructure and the equipment necessary for the operation of the deposit-return system throughout the country.

On 20 October 2023, the National Authority for Administration and Regulation in Communications ("ANCOM") and the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitisation published for public consultation until 31 October 2023, the Draft Law on the establishment of measures for the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC, as well for the amendment and supplementation of Law No 365/2002 on electronic commerce (the "Draft Law").

Bondoc si Asociatii, working with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Foley & Lardner, has advised BorgWarner on the Romanian aspects of the spin-off of its fuel supply systems and spare parts and accessories business into the Phinia company.

On 7 August 2023, the Ministry of Energy published for public consultation the draft Government decision on the approval of the general legal framework for the implementation and functioning of the Contracts for Difference (CfD) support mechanism for low carbon technologies (the “Draft Government Decision”), together with an information note for potential bidders in relation to the implementation of a first CfD scheme, the related auctions rounds being envisaged for Q4 2023 and Q1 2025 (the “Information Note”).

On 28 June 2023, the European Commission published the proposals for the legislative package on payment services (“Revised Payments Legislative Package”) that will replace the Directive (EU) 2015/2366 on payment services in the internal market (“PSD 2”) and Directive 2009/110/EC on the taking up, pursuit and prudential supervision of the business of electronic money institutions (“EMD”) and merge the legal frameworks applicable to payments and electronic money services.

Bondoc si Asociatii has advised RetuRO Sistem Garantie Returnare on a RON 426 million (approximately EUR 85.7 million) green financing from ING Bank N.V. Amsterdam – Bucharest Branch.

On 26 April 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU" or the "Court") rendered an interesting new judgment that reopens the discussion about the problems posed by the legal protection of pseudonymized data. The Eighth Chamber, Extended Composition, of the General Court issued a judgment in case T-557/20 which involved the Single Resolution Board, as the central resolution authority within the European Banking Union ("Single Resolution Board" or "SRB") and the European Data Protection Supervisor ("EDPS").

It has recently been noted that social actors show a growing interest in concluding collective agreements at various levels, the justification being manifold: this either represents a way to retain employees, or it is an attempt to align to market practices, etc.

The EU support for renewables, fostered from the outset by climate change and environmental/health as well as energy independence concerns, has prompted across the years a booming renewable business. Then the war in Ukraine broke out and the ensuing energy crisis raised a structural question mark on how EU could best react to these challenges and what role would the renewables play in the process.

On 13 December 2022, Law No. 357/2022 (“Law 357/2022”) on the approval of Emergency Ordinance No. 119/2022 amending Emergency Ordinance No. 27/2022 (“GEO 27/2022”) on measures applicable to final customers in the electricity and natural gas market in the period between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023, as well as for amending certain regulatory acts in the energy field (“GEO 119/2022”) was published in the Official Gazette of Romania no. 1198. Law 357/2022 entered into force on 16 December 2022, except for certain provisions which will enter into force at a later date. Below is a selection of some of the more relevant provisions set forth under Law 357/2022.

Bucharest is currently going down a rocky road insofar as urban regulations are concerned, which have gone through a real odyssey, from being judicially and administratively suspended, to some of them ending up by being finally cancelled by the administrative litigation courts.

On 6 December 2022, Government Emergency Ordinance no. 163/2022 ("GEO 163/2022" or the “Ordinance”) for supplementing the legal framework on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and for amending and supplementing certain regulatory acts, was published in Official Gazette of Romania No. 1165, entering into force on the same date.