Norton Rose Fulbright has advised PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna on a PLN 2.3 billion ESG financing from a banking consortium. DLA Piper advised the banks.

Stratulat Albulescu has advised the main shareholder of Stera Chemicals on the sale of 70% of their stake in Stera to the Oqema Group. Stalfort and, reportedly, Kapellmann advised Oqema AG in Romania and Germany, respectively.

CEE Attorneys Boanta Gidei si Asociatii has advised CEE Special Situations Fund portfolio company Aplast Wood Industry on its sale of a land plot near Bucharest including 12,500 square meters of logistics assets to Viva Toys.

Clifford Chance and its Turkish affiliate Ciftci Attorney Partnership have advised the China Baowu Steel Group Corporation Limited on the global merger control and foreign investment filings for its full acquisition of the Sinosteel Group Corporation Ltd.

Paksoy has advised Turkish flour producer Eksun Gida on its TRY 980 million IPO on Borsa Istanbul's Star Market.

Bernitsas has advised coordinator Intrum Hellas on the secondary sale and transfer of the Tethys securitized loan receivables portfolio – originated by Piraeus Bank – to a consortium consisting of SMERemediumCap, Latonia Enterprises, and WHG Europe. Karatzas & Partners advised the buyers.

Croatia's HD-Win has appointed Zunic Law Firm Partner Tijana Zunic Maric as its data representative for Serbia.

Pohla & Hallmagi has advised CF&S Estonia on renting new office space in the Ulemiste City business park from Opiku Majad.

Rymarz Zdort Maruta has advised Kajima Partnerships and Griffin Capital Partners company Cerceda on its acquisition of Hymon Fotowoltaika from BNS Capital. Gessel and HWW Hewelt Wojnowski i Wspolnicy advised the seller.

Dentons and its Turkish affiliate Balcioglu Selcuk Ardiyok Keki Attorney Partnership have advised Akfen Holding on its acquisition of the approximately 33% outstanding stake in Akfen Yenilenebilir Enerji from the EBRD and the IFC.

Noerr has advised Saint-Gobain on its acquisition of plasters, paints, and coatings producer Revco Hungary. CEE Attorneys advised the sellers.

Clifford Chance, working with Vinge, has advised CBRE Investment Management on its sale of Swedish retail assets Port 73 and Gallerian Nian to NIAM.

Former PNSA Attorney Alexandru Nicolae and former Prosecutor Liviu Dascalescu have teamed up to establish the Dascalescu Nicolae & Partners law firm in Romania.

Greenberg Traurig has announced the establishment of its new Data Center practice in the firm's Warsaw office, to be headed by Counsel Adam Narloch.

White-Collar Crime Attorneys Danilo Nikolic and Luka Nikolic have joined Jankovic Popovic Mitic as Partners in the firm.

Eren Kursun has been appointed the new Managing Partner of Baker McKenzie Turkish affiliate Esin Attorney Partnership – to start on July 1, 2023 – taking over from Ismail Esin who will continue to manage the Dispute Resolution department and serve on the firm's executive board.

Gecic Law has announced the launch of its Artificial Intelligence & Robotics practice in Serbia, to be headed by Founding Partner Bogdan Gecic.

Viacheslav Yakymchuk joins Serhiy Chorny as Co-Managing Partner of Baker McKenzie’s Kyiv office. He takes over from Serhiy Piontkovsky, who has held that position since 2010 and will continue to lead the firm's Real Estate practice group in Kyiv.

Former Clifford Chance Counsel Pawel Pogorzelski has joined EY Law Poland as the new White-Collar Crime Advisory Leader. 

Prague-based Attorneys Tomas Bures and Jan Varecha and Bratislava-based Attorney Eva Hromadkova have been appointed as Associate Partners at PRK Partners.

Former Senior Associate Michal Tracz has been promoted to a Partner position at KRK Kieszkowska Rutkowska Kolasinski in Warsaw.

Former Senior Associates Martin Zahariev and Encho Simeonov have been promoted to Partner at Dimitrov Petrov & Co starting March 1, 2023.

Turkish law firms Diri Legal and Sevi & Mergen have joined forces to form a new full-service law firm in Istanbul – Diri Sevi Mergen – helmed by Partners Nazan Diri Bal, Ali Murat Sevi, and Turhan Mergen.

Former Senior Privacy & Technology Consultant Cristina Cretu has been promoted to a Partner position with MPR Partners in London on March 1, 2023.

Selling a part of an undertaking and the consequent transfer of a part of the business to another employer raises several practical and legal issues. This applies in particular to employees assigned to several organisational units, including the transferred part of the undertaking. According to CJEU case law, such employees' employment contracts may be divided as long as this does not entail a deterioration in the working conditions and does not adversely affect safeguarding employee rights.

In terms of recent updates, on 25 February the Council of the European Union adopted the tenth package of economic and individual sanctions against Russia in response to the armed conflict in Ukraine, coinciding with the one-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Although negotiations regarding the method of capping electricity and gas prices are still ongoing, both at the national level and in the EU, the Government of the Czech Republic has already issued the expected amendment specifying the capping of energy prices for large enterprises.

Until 2014, less than 10 percent of the largest companies in the European Union regularly disclosed non-financial information about their operations as part of reports that supplement annual financial consolidated reports. Although they were obliged to do so by the then-current Directive of the European Union, the requirements of the existing legislation proved to need to be more transparent and more effective.

Companies who are the victims of trade secret thefts by their employees in Hungary are protected on more levels: in addition to relying on the Business Secret Act, they can invoke the Labour Code, as well.Less clear is to which court should employers turn to in case they decide to sue their former employee and the competitor, employing the latter. Is the commercial court or the labour court the right forum? We analyse the question in the light of a recent judgment of the Hungarian Supreme Court.

On 23 February 2023, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted the Law of Ukraine “On Compensation for Damage and Destruction of Certain Categories of Real Estate as a Result of Hostilities, Terrorist Acts, and Sabotage Caused by the Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation Against Ukraine, and the State Register of Property Damaged and Destroyed as a Result of Hostilities, Terrorist Acts, and Sabotage Caused by the Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation Against Ukraine” No. 2923-IX (“Law”), which will enter into force on 22 May 2023.

2022 was a year of significant legislative changes in the field of competition, and 2023 is set to present several challenges for the business environment. This article discusses three of the most significant competition law challenges faced by Romanian companies in 2023: no-poaching, foreign direct investment (FDI), and abuse of superior bargaining position.

It has recently been noted that social actors show a growing interest in concluding collective agreements at various levels, the justification being manifold: this either represents a way to retain employees, or it is an attempt to align to market practices, etc.

The announced amendments to the Law on Foreigners and the Law on the Employment of Foreigners contain significant novelties. The most important changes relate to the simplified and digitized procedure for obtaining a residence and work permit for foreigners, new categories of foreigners who will be able to work and/or establish employment only based on residence permit, as well as the extended period of validity of permits.

Hungary has been traditionally the go-to hub for filming in Europe.

“Even if the deleted correspondence is restored, the act of deletion is considered by the Competition Board as hindering the on-site investigation.”

The history of artificial intelligence can be traced back to the 1950s, when researchers and computer scientists first explored the possibility of creating machines which could accomplish tasks typically performed by humans. Since then, AI has undergone several significant phases of development, each of which has been marked by essential landmarks and milestones. In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue computer famously defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov. In recent years, AI has seen the development of deep learning and neural networks capable of processing large amounts of data and making complex predictions.