Notwithstanding the ongoing war, the Ukrainian banking and financial services industry continues to operate without interruptions and shows great resilience and stability. Ukrainian legislation continues to develop at the same time, bringing the standards of banking and financial services closer to the EU requirements.

Investment firms, which operate in financial markets and provide investment services to third parties, were subject to the same organizational regulations as credit institutions, despite their different business and risk profiles. Their activities are regulated by MiFID II, which was transposed by the Austrian Securities Supervision Act 2018.

In today’s global economy, credit institutions play a critical role in providing financial services to individuals, businesses, and governments. However, the failure of a credit institution may result in far-reaching consequences, as we have recently seen with banking crises in Switzerland, the US, and, potentially, Europe.

In the context of the ESG framework, under the planned allocation within the EU, Slovenia should (according to the EIB) allocate EUR 520 million per year to renewable energy sources and their efficient use, and EUR 780 million per year if we add transport, waste, and water to the equation.

In the context of global efforts to migrate towards a green economy, based on renewable energy, the Republic of Moldova aims to improve and complete the regulatory framework applicable to the use of energy from renewable sources.

One of the most important recent buzzwords in Moldova, at the intersection of legal services and IT, is GDPR compliance and its associated complications (and opportunities) – to strictly follow both the GDPR (where applicable extraterritorially in Moldova) and the Moldovan legal framework, which is partially aligned with the EU law.

The spring of 2023 brought a genuine spring mood into the Moldovan energy sector. The overall feeling is that Moldova came out of the winter that, by many predictions, should have frozen it solid and is now eagerly looking forward to bright, although still occasionally frosty, days ahead.

The EU Directives on Work-life balance and on Transparent and predictable working conditions were introduced into the Bulgarian national legislation in August 2022 and brought about significant changes and obligations for the employers. What do they mean for businesses?

The Green Deal for Europe aims to boost the efficient use of resources, helps to keep sustainable environment policy and transforms particular economies of the EU countries by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, by rebuilding immovables in order to reach higher level of energy sustainability, by introducing products with longer sustainability time, by developing products that may be easily recycled, by combating global deforestation, and much more.

Court fees represent an important part of the costs in every legal proceeding. Matters related to court fees in the Republic of Serbia are currently regulated by the Law on Court Fees and the Fee Tariff contained within that law.

The passing of time makes claims unenforceable in front of courts. While in some countries, a simple notice letter interrupts the limitation period, in Hungary creditors who want to avoid the limitation of their claim must initiate a lawsuit. Is it always enough to start litigation to interrupt the limitation of claims in Hungary? The Hungarian Supreme Court addressed this question in a recent case.

The National Bank of Ukraine (“NBU”) recently allowed Ukrainian borrowers to transfer foreign currency (“FX”) funds abroad to fulfil their obligations under the following categories of loans from foreign lenders:

After a long period of preparations the Whistleblower Protection Act has been finally passed.

Below is a round-up of selected updates on developments in Europe of ESG regulations and policies. Please note that this list is not comprehensive and may not include all such developments that may be relevant to your business.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) gradually continues to lift martial law limitations for cross-border borrowings.

In one of our previous texts we wrote about the recent decision of the Spanish personal data protection authority, by which it fined an employer as the controller of personal data for using the option of audio recording within the employees surveillance system, which data were subsequently used for termination of an employment contract.

Accountability is one of the key notions both in GDPR and the Serbian Data Protection Act.

On 22 March 2023, an amendment to the Transnational Provision of Services Act (Zakon o čezmejnem izvajanju storitev – ZČmIS-1, “Act on Cross-Border Services“) was adopted and partially came into force on 18 April 2023, with individual provisions becoming effective on 1 January 2024.