One might have hoped that, with the pandemic fading, the real estate market was bound to bounce back in 2022, despite interest rates rising since October 2021. And bounce back it did, at least in the first quarter, when investments in commercial real estate reached EUR 1.7 billion, including Google’s landmark acquisition of a Warsaw office building for nearly EUR 600 million. The Russian aggression against Ukraine, coupled with growing cost pressures, created the current market conditions that will continue to shape the CEE real estate market for the foreseeable future.

The Polish media market finds itself in an interesting position. Following a streak of market moves and reshufflings, the media landscape seems to have, to an extent, polarized. To get an insight into the market ins and outs, as well as expectations for the future, we reached out to Wiercinski Kwiecinski Baehr Partner Agnieszka Wiercinska-Kruzewska.

On January 1, 2022, a “historic tax reform” – as referred to by the Polish government – came into force, with major changes implemented into Poland’s tax system. Just a few months later, another tax reform package, now known as the Polish Deal 2.0, was introduced. We spoke with Penteris Head of Tax Artur Plutowski and PwC Legal Partner Katarzyna Komorowska to learn what was the driving force behind the update and how it will impact the business sector in Poland.

The Times They Are a-Changin’ – such a description is more than appropriate for the municipality-developer relationship in recent months in the Czech Republic. The adoption of a new construction code promises to bring fresh wind into development projects and improve the relationships between these two major players. This is most likely to happen thanks to the re-introduction of the so-called planning agreements into the Czech legal environment. Although already recognized and used in the past, this new instrument is getting more and more noticed by Czech municipalities, most of all by the City of Prague, which, on January 27, 2022, adopted the brand-new Guidelines on the Investor Participation in Urban Development, the application of which is done through planning agreements.

Even if your main focus is on developing your business and you think that the keys to HR are solid wages and an interesting benefits package, there are still some important issues in Czech employment law you should be aware of.

Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine and the subsequent wave of refugees has been a new challenge for all European countries – and the Czech Republic is no different. A very low unemployment rate and a shortage of workers is a long-standing problem in Czechia and, thus, this new situation brings not only challenges but also opportunities. There have been more job openings than workers in the Czech economy since 2018 and, in 2021, the Labour Office recorded about 350,000 job openings. This situation slowed growth in the Czech economy and, thus, accepting Ukrainian refugees happens to be not only a moral obligation but also in the country’s best interest and an opportunity for future growth.

On May 10, 2022, the European Commission adopted the new Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER) accompanied by the new Vertical Guidelines (Guidelines), which entered into force on June 1, 2022. We spoke with several Czech competition experts to understand how these updates will influence the day-to-day business activities in the vertical agreements area.

Life Sciences R&D has consistently been touted as one of the Czech government’s top priorities – and the markets and investors have not been indifferent. We reached out to several experts to check up on the overall health of life sciences R&D in the Czech Republic and learn how that priority translates into practice.

The sixth package of European Union sanctions imposed on Russia is a widely discussed topic, yet the overall levels of preparedness to adopt the associated energy import ban varies from one country to another. Indeed, with Russian oil and gas exports being such a dominant source of energy for a number of European countries, it remains to be seen how all of them adapt to the change. To gain insight into how certain EU member states and non-EU countries are (likely) to fare in the immediate wake of the ban, we reached out to legal professionals from Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Moldova.

Writing an editorial proved to be equally as challenging as operating in the CEE legal market. For the record, I will confine my experiences mostly to the region of the Western Balkans. In hindsight, the past year(s) were something of a specialty, even by our own criteria and relative to our extensive experience. But let’s start from the beginning…

Historically, Ukraine has been known as a country with a good investment climate, particularly in the energy sector. The country’s high feed-in tariff rates, general digitalization, well-established and simplified regulatory procedures, and the availability of alternative suppliers for works and services, among other factors, have contributed to a large influx of investors in new green energy projects in Ukraine.

The Hungarian government has introduced an extra tax of 65% on particular turnover of energy producers from renewable sources.

The Turkish electricity market has been under a liberalization process since 2001. Specific steps had been taken during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s but the main amendment to the legal framework for the creation of a competitive electricity market was the enactment of the Electricity Market Act No. 4628, which was brought into force in 2001. As a result, the integrated structure of the electricity market was to be unbundled, following the privatization of distribution activity in accordance with a specific timetable.

Recent global events, in particular the Russian aggression against Ukraine and subsequent restrictions on the supply of fuel (including coal, oil, and gas), have negatively impacted not only the Polish but the global energy market.

Although the intensity of solar radiation in the Czech Republic is not particularly significant, the state has extensively subsidized the construction of solar power plants in order to meet its commitments to the European Union regarding the financing of renewable energy sources. In 2009 and 2010, the Czech Republic experienced a solar boom when solar power plants were built on a large scale. Financial support for solar power plants, however, has undergone radical changes since then.

Public procurement in Greece by entities operating in the energy sector is regulated, mainly, by Law 4412/2016 on Public works, supplies, and services contracts – Transposition of Directives 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU. Public tenders are conducted via the National System of Electronic Public Procurement and the award of public contracts must comply with the general principles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, namely equal treatment, non-discrimination, mutual recognition, proportionality, and transparency.

A combination of policy support for and decreasing investment costs in renewables, the nuclear energy revival, and major nearby discoveries of natural gas in the Black Sea leads to the unprecedented interest of investors in Bulgaria.

Last year, more precisely in December, Kosovo endured a deepening crisis considered one of the worst in the last decade.