Romania’s National Office for the Prevention and Control of Money Laundering has recently published a draft of an Emergency Ordinance amending and supplementing Law no. 129/2019 on the prevention and control of money laundering and terrorist financing (the Emergency Ordinance) in order to harmonise domestic legislation with the provisions of Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering or terrorist financing (the Fifth AML Directive), as amended by Regulation (EU) 2023/113 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2023 on information accompanying transfers of funds and certain crypto-assets (the MiCAR).

In 2022, the Slovak Parliament passed two long-awaited laws, an Act No 201/2022 on construction (hereinafter the “Construction Act”) and an Act No 200/2022 on spatial planning (hereinafter the “Spatial Planning Act”). I wrote about the adoption of these laws and their content in my last article published in CEE Legal Matters. Both laws, which together were intended to bring long-anticipated systemic changes to spatial-planning and building permit procedures in Slovakia, were supposed to take effect on 1 April 2024; however, this never happened.

We have begun our analysis of how to calculate the five-calendar day period specified in Art. 10 para. (7) of the Emergency Ordinance 120/2021 on the management, operation and implementation of the national e-invoicing system RO e-Factura[1] (“GEO 120/2021”) in the context of the Ministry of Finance’s LinkedIn post of August 2024, namely:

The amended Rules of Proceedings (hereinafter referred to as the “Rules of Proceedings”) of the Permanent Court of Arbitration attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (hereinafter referred to as the “Arbitration Court”) came into force on 15 September 2024. The amended rules are to be applied in arbitration proceedings initiated on or after the date of its entry into force.

The Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo approved the new Bankruptcy Law no. 08/L-256 on July 11, 2024, which was published in the Official Gazette on August 6, 2024, and will enter into force 15 days from the date of publication.

Since the onset of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Germany has emerged as a steadfast ally, providing extensive support across various domains.

The business transfer inevitably impacts on employment relationships, a context in which the identity of the economic entity has been the subject of exhaustive analysis in recent case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

The Czech Parliament and government have been unusually active in the field of labour law recently so there is a lot of legal news.

In a crucial legal victory for the European Commission, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has upheld the Commission’s decision that Apple must repay up to €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland. This ruling, issued in September 2024, reaffirms the Commission’s original 2016 judgment, marking a significant step in the European Union‘s effort to crack down on favorable tax arrangements for multinational corporations. 

Under which circumstances are controllers and processors not required to maintain records of personal data processing activities? The Personal Data Protection Law, modeled on the GDPR, sets out exceptions to the obligation for organizations with fewer than 250 employees to keep processing records. While this acknowledges the characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprises, ensuring they are not unnecessarily burdened with additional costs, the number of employees is not the sole criterion for exemption from the record-keeping obligation.

The Proposal for the Law on Litigation Procedure has recently been reintroduced for review by the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia. As of September 2, 2024, it is now on the agenda of the Commission for Political System and Inter-Community Relations, according to the Ministry of Justice.

On 10 September 2024, amendments to the foreign currency (“FX”) regulation came into force, aimed at easing restrictions on business and, on the other hand, at introducing measures to counteract capital outflows.

Starting from 1 January 2025, Hungary moves to a fully electronic land registry system following many delays and the potential benefits are transformative. The push for this modernization began in the 2010s, spurred by the success of electronic property registration systems across Europe. Countries like Austria and the Czech Republic have been using electronic land registries since 2001, with Slovakia, Romania, Poland, and most recently Bulgaria following suit in 2021. While these countries maintain paper-based options, the shift toward digital processes has proven advantageous.

When developing their models, AI providers use various data sets. Sometimes these are provided by their clients, as in the case of tailor-made chatbots, and sometimes the models are trained on licensed or even publicly available data.

On 16 August 2024, new rules for the registration of geographical indications in Ukraine came into force ("Rules"). In accordance with Order of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine No. 16370 dated 09.07.2024, the Rules establish requirements for the registration of geographical indications for agricultural goods, food and alcoholic beverages.

The exclusion of shareholders has been seen over the years as a specific procedure aimed at safeguarding companies, in case of a serious breach of the legal and contractual obligations of the shareholders or in case of events with legal effects on some shareholders – resulting in the loss of the “unanimous” consent expressed as affectio societatis (consisting in the shareholders’ intention to cooperate in running the business to achieve and share the benefits).

Manufacturers have less than a month left - until June 30, 2024 - before they must comply with the rules for products subject to the mandatory Deposit Refund System (DRS) when placing them on the market. Compliance with the new regulations will result in a price increase of HUF 50 per product, which consumers will have to bear - unless they return the relevant beverage cans and bottles.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine published Resolution No. 988 dated 16.08.2024, which amended the Procedure for Reservation of Persons Liable for Military Service during Martial Law (hereinafter – the “Reservation Procedure”). Key changes are: