In the context of global efforts to migrate towards a green economy, based on renewable energy, the Republic of Moldova aims to improve and complete the regulatory framework applicable to the use of energy from renewable sources.

One of the most important recent buzzwords in Moldova, at the intersection of legal services and IT, is GDPR compliance and its associated complications (and opportunities) – to strictly follow both the GDPR (where applicable extraterritorially in Moldova) and the Moldovan legal framework, which is partially aligned with the EU law.

The spring of 2023 brought a genuine spring mood into the Moldovan energy sector. The overall feeling is that Moldova came out of the winter that, by many predictions, should have frozen it solid and is now eagerly looking forward to bright, although still occasionally frosty, days ahead.

On June 23, 2022, the European Council granted Moldova the status of candidate country for EU accession. ACI Partners Legal Manager Carolina Parcalab, Bivol Sotchi & Partners Managing Partner Inna Sotchi, Efrim Rosca si Asociatii Managing Partner Oleg Efrim, and Gladei & Partners Managing Partner Roger Gladei explore the recent changes in Moldova resulting from its new status.

With the ongoing war in neighboring Ukraine, Bivol Sotchi & Partners Founding Partner Andrei Bivol, Gladei & Partners Partner Iulian Pasatii, and Efrim Rosca Asociatii Managing Partner Oleg Efrim look at how the conflict has affected Moldova’s economic growth.

An in-depth look at Cristina Filip of Filip & Company covering her career path, education, and top projects as a lawyer as well as a few insights about her as a manager at work and as a person outside the office.

Restructuring, both from a financial and operational perspective, has been regarded as a wonderful “nice to have” by the Romanian market, for many years. Will this time be different?

While the war has caused extensive disruption to global shipping and is likely to intensify ongoing supply chain disruptions, port congestion, and crew crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in a context where Russian ships are switching their flags amid sanctions in record numbers, an increased interest in local maritime and inland transportation has been noted, including ship registration in Romania, particularly that of barges. Thus, the Romanian registration provisions could be of interest to companies in the transportation field.

In the past years, social dialogue in Romania has decreased in significance within labor relationships, considering the quite old-fashioned framework, having no collective bargaining agreements in place at the industry level, the lack of impactful voices at the trade union level, and the lack of general awareness of the legal framework – and of its potential positive impact on how workplace representation and collective negotiations could contribute to better business performance.

Aligned with global trends, Romania’s M&A market suffered an apparently steady slowdown in terms of deal numbers in 2022, and not much has changed in the first quarter of 2023. While experts were expecting 2023 to suddenly jump back to 2021 levels, in reality, the well-known global factors having contributed to the slowdown of the market are not dialing back just yet. 

The practice of the Romanian Competition Council (RCC) over the last few years can be summed up in a rather simple headline: many (more) cases and substantial fines.

Building upon the key principles set out in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which included 17 sustainable development goals and 169 associated targets to be met by 2030, as well as on the provisions of the Paris Agreement, regulators in the EU have published the plan for sustainable finance (Renewed Strategy on Sustainable Finance, published in 2021 and based on the action plan originally published in March 2018). Achieving the economic transformation envisaged under the above instruments requires extensive funding, estimated by the UN at about USD 2.5-3 trillion per year. 

Romania is a key player in the European oil and gas market, being the largest natural gas producer in Central and Eastern Europe. Romania has one of the largest processing capacities in Eastern Europe and recently progressed with the development of the Black Sea reserves, currently estimated anywhere between 42 to 84 billion cubic meters of natural gas. 

The draft Code of Territorial Planning, Urbanism, and Construction (the Urbanism Code) has recently been approved by the General Secretariat of the Government, on March 29, 2023. Of course, the government’s approval is just one of the steps in implementing the new rules, as the Urbanism Code must also be approved by parliament, promulgated by the president, and then published in the Official Gazette.

The Romanian Civil Procedure Code (CPC) explicitly regulates institutional arbitration within a discrete chapter named “Institutional Arbitration” (Title VII of Book IV) and includes six articles to that effect (Articles 616 – 621 CPC). 

With most of Europe facing turbulent times, Romanian markets are experiencing vibrant PE fund activity across a wide plethora of sectors. Popovici Nitu Stoica and Asociatii Managing Partner Florian Nitu, Wolf Theiss Partner Ileana Glodeanu, and Schoenherr Partner Madalina Neagu take a deep dive into the markets and their drivers.

The Romanian legal market seems to indicate a substantial downturn in law firm spin-offs, of late. Musat & Asociatii Managing Partner Paul Buta, Popescu & Asociatii Senior Partner Gheorghe Buta, and Simion & Baciu Managing Partner Cosmina Maria Simion share their thoughts on this trend, the reasons behind it, and the likelihood of it continuing.

In The Corner Office, we ask Managing Partners at law firms across Central and Eastern Europe about their backgrounds, strategies, and responsibilities. With the first quarter of 2023 wrapped up, we turned to the future and asked: In which practice area do you expect the most growth – in terms of work volume – in the next 12 months?