Papanikolopoulou & Partners has advised the National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank as financial advisers to Metlen Energy & Metals regarding its dual listing on the London Stock Exchange and the Athens Stock Exchange. Bernitsas, working with Clifford Chance, has advised Metlen. Karatzas & Partners, working with Latham & Watkins, advised Citigroup Global Markets and Morgan Stanley & Co as UK Sponsors and have also advised Citibank and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding on Greek law matters.

Freshfields has advised Permira and Nordic Capital on their all-cash, voluntary, and recommended public takeover offer for Bavarian Nordic.

Clifford Chance has advised Ceskoslovenska Obchodni Banka, alongside Raiffeisenbank, UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the Prague branch of Vseobecna Uverova Banka, on the club financing of Ceska Posta's existing indebtedness and ongoing business needs. Havel & Partners and Wolf Theiss reportedly advised on the financing as well.

Papapolitis & Papapolitis has advised the Athens Exchange on Euronext’s voluntary tender offer for the acquisition of all shares in ATHEX in exchange for Euronext shares. Lambadarios advised Euronext. Koutalidis reportedly advised Deutsche Bank.

Gessel has advised Dino Polska on a 1:10 share split.

Filip & Company has advised Prosus Group member OLX Global, a shareholder in the company operating OLX Romania, on the sale of Kiwi Finance to Partners Financial Services.

E+H has advised Andreessen Horowitz on the USD 5.5 million seed financing round investment for Taceo led by Archetype. Schoenherr advised Taceo. Cooley and Lark reportedly advised Archetype.

Sayenko Kharenko has advised the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on a EUR 30 million unfunded portfolio risk-sharing facility with Ukrsibbank.

Dentons has advised the Board of Directors of Purcari Wineries on the RON 604 million public takeover bid launched by Maspex Romania. Schoenherr advised the founders of the winery. CMS, working with Turcan Cazac and Georgiades & Pelides, advised Maspex. Norton Rose Fulbright advised PKO Bank Polski on a loan facility to Maspex Romania to support the acquisition.

Dimitrov Petrov & Co has advised DHH on the acquisition of the remaining 40% stake in Evolink for a transaction value of over EUR 2.2 million.

Dorda, working with Heuking and Goerg, has advised German investor DRS Investment on its acquisition of a majority stake in Aurena. Brandl Talos, working with Ego Humrich Wyen, advised Aurena founder Karl Kuehberger.

Fort Legal has successfully advised Bondea on obtaining a crowdfunding license from the Bank of Lithuania.

Gecic Law has opened up an office in Brussels under the helm of Partner Anne MacGregor.

Damla Aygun Yararca has become the Senior Director, Legal, Ethics, Compliance & Quality at Novo Nordisk Turkiye.

DLA Piper has appointed Counsel Irina Macovei as its Head of the Intellectual Property and Technology practice in Romania.

Former Lambadarios Partner Sotiris Dempegiotis has joined Calavros Law Firm as Partner and Deputy Head of the International Arbitration Department.

Alexios Andriopoulos has joined Welcome Pickups as the company's new Head of Legal & Compliance.

Octavian Ionascu has joined DLA Piper's Romania office as a Tax Director.

Luiza Alexandra Ionescu has joined Stratulat Albulescu as Special Counsel and the firm's new Head of the Energy Department. Ionescu joins alongside Industry Expert Andreea Paraschiv.

Jalsovszky has launched a dedicated “second opinion” service, offering clients, including individuals, companies, and even fellow lawyers, an independent external perspective in legal disputes.

Budapest-based Dentons Partner Rob Irving has been reappointed as the Co-Head of Corporate and M&A, while Warsaw-based Partner Agnieszka Stefanowicz-Baranska has been appointed the Co-Head of the Competition and Antitrust practice.

Alexandra Ivancia has become CTP Romania's new Head of Legal.

Radovan Hrisny has joined Havel & Partners as Security Director.

Diana Tavera and Marcin Beben have become Equity Partners at Kochanski & Partners.

After 17 years of being regulated under a unified legal framework alongside other industrial property rights, trademarks in Albania will now be governed by a dedicated legal instrument.

On 30 July 2025, the President of Ukraine signed Draft Law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Improvement of the Mechanism for Attracting Private Investments Using Public-Private Partnership to Accelerate the Restoration of War-Damaged Facilities and Construction of New Facilities Related to the Post-War Economic Recovery of Ukraine” No. 7508 (“Law”). This is a comprehensive reform developed since 2022, spanning almost 250 pages. It restates the Law of Ukraine “On Public-Private Partnership” and amends related acts to align them with updated public-private partnership (“PPP”) procedures.

As of 1 August 2025, the newly adopted Regulation on Additional Requirements for the Placement on the Market of Products Containing Palm Oil, Palm Fat, or Other Vegetable Oils and Fats (the “Regulation”) will come into effect in Serbia, marking a significant development in the regulatory framework at the intersection of food law and consumer protection.

The National Bank of Ukraine (the "NBU") has given the green light to open banking in Ukraine by adopting the relevant Regulation on Open Banking in Ukraine by Resolution of the NBU Board No. 80 on 25 July 2025 (the "Regulation"). Thus, the NBU has taken the final steps towards implementing the provisions of EU Directive 2015/2366 (PSD2) on payment services and Chapter 4 "Procedure for gaining access to user accounts by payment service providers (open banking)" of Section IV of the Law of Ukraine "On Payment Services".

Following the adoption of the general framework of the FDI screening in March 2024, the regime was originally expected to become operational in Bulgaria no later than September 2024. This timeline was contingent on the adoption of the necessary secondary legislation, including the amended Rules on the Application of the Investment Promotion Act (the “FDI Screening Act”) as well as the Rules on the Organization and Functioning of the Interdepartmental Council on FDI Screening.

European industry is going through a period of fundamental change. Rising (not only) energy costs, the pressure of global competition and, above all, new public expectations and the requirements of EU environmental regulation. All of these factors are putting pressure on the current EU industrial environment, which is looking for new ways to optimise production processes, reduce costs and meet regulatory obligations.

Europe has already begun regulating deepfakes. The EU’s AI Act emphasises transparency, risk management and conformity assessments for high-risk AI, but does not create new individual rights against deepfake misuse. It requires providers of systems that generate or manipulate deepfake media to embed machine-readable markings (e.g. watermarks or metadata) flagging content as AI-created, and obliges deployers (platforms or publishers) to “clearly and distinguishably” label any deepfake outputs as AI-generated.

As a follow-up to the piece I previously published on CEELM – FDI Is 4.52x Cooler Than Merger Control – Romania’s latest guidelines on investments’ screening brings important clarifications to an already far-reaching regime.

The end of July brings much-anticipated news, as the FDI Guidelines were published on 30 July and have now entered into force. We previously examined the draft Guidelines proposed by the authority back in February (see here) and are now analysing the changes introduced by lawmakers in the final version that are particularly relevant for practitioners.

This summer, the Albanian National Assembly adopted a significant package of amendments to the Law on Foreigners, signalling a clear shift toward aligning national migration rules with key EU directives. While the legal changes are substantial, their purpose is broader: to simplify how Albania governs entry, residence, and work rights for foreign nationals, especially those from the European Union. The reform reflects both Albania’s political will to approximate the EU acquis and a growing recognition that the country must adapt to new demographic, labour, and mobility dynamics. While the amendments cover a wide range of areas, we highlight below the provisions most likely to impact foreign nationals and their interactions with Albanian institutions.

The adoption of The Personal Bankruptcy Act ( the“Act“), published in the State Gazette, issue 54 of July 4, 2025, marks a significant milestone in the development of Bulgarian law. This legislative act fills a long-standing gap in the national legal framework, as Bulgaria was until recently the only European Union member state without comprehensive personal insolvency legislation. This lack has led to serious social and economic difficulties for citizens burdened with unmanageable debts, who often find themselves in a permanent state of inability to repay them.

According to Regulation 2025/40 of the European Parliament and the Council on packaging and packaging waste, starting from 1 January 2029, only non-profit organizations will be allowed to operate mandatory deposit return systems (DRS) for beverage packaging. Currently, in Hungary, this system is fully operated by MOHU MOL Hulladékgazdálkodási Zrt. (MOHU).

The international sales process for the renowned Vienna Marriott Hotel at Parkring Vienna has been successfully completed with its acquisition by an international consortium of investors.

AIR ARABIA WAS FOUND COMPLIANT DURING A RECENT PROCEDURE OF PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA ACROSS THE EU

bpv Huegel successfully advised RWA Raiffeisen Ware Austria Aktiengesellschaft (RWA) on the sale of its share in AUSTRIA JUICE GmbH to AGRANA Beteiligungs-Aktiengesellschaft.

RWA eGen completes the purchase of shares in RWA AG from BayWa AG. The acquisition financing was structured and provided by Raiffeisen Bank International AG.

bpv Huegel is delighted to appoint Johannes Mitterecker as a partner. He works in the Corporate Law/M&A practice group and specialises in M&A transactions, restructuring and sports law.

RTPR has assisted the syndicate of banks in connection with a RON 3.1 billion syndicated loan granted to Electrica.

From the 1st May, 2025 Markian Malskyy becomes the new managing partner of ARZINGER, replacing Timur Bondaryev, founding partner. Timur Bondaryev has held this position almost ever since the firm was founded 23 years ago and, together with other partners, has built a strong legal brand.

This makes bpv Huegel’s tax practice top-ranked in Chambers Europe. This confirms the leading position of bpv Huegel in tax law advice.

EAVISTA is acquiring 75.1% of the shares in card complete Service Bank AG from UniCredit Bank Austria and Raiffeisen Bank International.

We are delighted to announce that PRK Partners has been shortlisted with other three international law firms operating on the Czech legal market as finalists for the Czech Republic Law Firm of the Year 2025 in the 26th annual IFLR Europe Awards.

The Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic (PMU) imposed a fine of EUR 675,200 on United Classifieds s.r.o. for a serious breach of competition rules, namely for abuse of a dominant position on the online real estate advertising market.

RTPR announces the promotion of Bogdan Cordos to Partner. He joins the team of 8 partners consisting of Costin Taracila, Victor Padurari, Alexandru Retevoescu, Mihai Ristici, Valentin Berea, Roxana Ionescu, Alina Stavaru and Cosmin Tilea.