Client Alerts

Starting in 2013, several investment treaty claims have been filed in the field of renewable energy against several European countries, alleging a breach of the Energy Charter Treaty. These claims are based upon legislative changes that gradually reduced the incentives provided for renewable energy investments through favorable feed-in tariffs. Such incentives were created in the last 10 to 15 years to attract renewable energy investments.

Nachdem die Europäische Kommission im Jänner das Standardformular für die Einheitliche Europäische Eigenerklärung kundgemacht hat, ist diese seit 18.4.2016 verpflichtend bei Vergabeverfahren im Oberschwellenbereich zu berücksichtigen.

On 19 April 2016 the Bulgarian Council of Ministers published a draft for the new Concessions Act (the "Draft CA"), which will replace the current framework regulating concessions and PPPs in Bulgaria. The Draft CA comes at a time when several significant concession procedures are to be launched in Bulgaria, including the concession of Sofia Airport, the concession of the Sofia Urban Heating.

Further to our newsletter sent on 31 March 2016, on the Emergency Government Ordinance no. 7/2016 we continue with an analysis on the new provisions set forth on the execution of FIDIC contracts with emphasis on the payment mechanism of amounts awarded as a result of dispute adjudication boards ("DAB") decisions.

EU legislation that will enter into force in July 2016 brings new obligations for the FSA and the financial market entities.

Another amendment to the Polish Industrial Property Law will come into force on 15 April 2016. This comes in addition to the already significant changes that came into force in 2015.

On 17 April 2016 another amendments to competition and consumers' law regime will come into force. The changes introduce new mechanisms and powers to the Competition Authority which aim at better protection of consumers, especially in relation to misselling of financial products and control of abusive clauses in standard contracts.

Following the recent regulatory improvements, a potential acceleration of the Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) transactions in Bulgaria is in the spotlight for the market participants. One of the first steps in executing of the reforms, pushed by the Bulgarian National Bank, was the initiation of the Asset Quality Review (AQR) of the Bulgarian banking institutions (22 out of 28 banks operating on the local market).