According to Benjamin Franklin, the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. This fact makes Montenegro’s favorable tax regime more attractive. Living and working in this country does not mean a total holiday from taxes, but it does mean a reduced tax load compared to the rest of Europe.

The new Media Law in Montenegro which entered into force on July 6, 2020, will update the country’s legislation in the area.  By adopting certain media standards, it is intended to provide the country with the modern legal solutions already present in the countries of the EU.

Advertising is no easy task for law firms in the former Yugoslavia, and law firm marketing and business development specialists in those legal markets face unique challenges in their attempts to promote their firms and obtain new clients.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the Western Balkans right during a period of accelerating economic activity and a promising economic outlook for 2020. The rapid spread of the virus forced the governments of the Western Balkans countries to introduce protective measures, lockdowns, and temporary business shutdowns. These restrictions had a devastating direct economic impact on a wide range of sectors – particularly the hospitality and transport industries – and the measures had many indirect side effects that significantly decreased economic activity.

“As much as we don’t want to deal mess with politics – it seems to be messing with us,” says Milena Roncevic Pejovic, Partner and Head of the Montenegrin practice at Karanovic & Partners. “Montenegro is waiting for the new government to form, and until that happens, everything is on hold, more or less.”

Montenegro first introduced a State aid control framework in 2011 in preparation for initiating the EU accession process. Almost ten years later, as the candidate country currently furthest along its accession journey, Montenegro has largely harmonized its State aid framework with the EU acquis. Still, the current level of enforcement and transparency leave a lot of room for improvement.

Harrisons Podgorica office has advised Aer Rianta International on its five-year duty-free concession to run retail stores at the Tivat and Podgorica airports in Montenegro. 

In The Corner Office we ask Managing Partners across Central and Eastern Europe about their unique roles and responsibilities. The question this time around: ”What is your single most favorite client matter in your career?”

The Law on Amendments to the Energy Act entered into force on 14 August 2020. It encompasses a set of changes aiming to simplify the existing procedures and to promote the development of the Montenegrin energy sector, especially in the context of the pending alignment of Montenegrin laws with the EU's acquis, as required under the negotiation chapter no. 15.

Former Karanovic & Partners Partner Patricia Gannon has announced the establishment of Gannon Advisory, which she describes as "a holistic strategic advisory business."

The SEE Legal law firm alliance has announced the formal launch of two new practice groups, one dedicated to Employment and Immigration, headed by Kolcuoglu Demirkan Kocakli Counsel Maral Minasyan, and one dedicated to Intellectual Property, headed by Selih & Partnerji Partner Natasa Pipan Nahtigal.

Karanovic & Partners has announced the withdrawal of Founding Partners Patricia Gannon and Dejan Nikolic, after a prolonged process.

As Europe begins a tentative re-opening following several difficult months of quarantining, social distancing, and working-from-home, we spoke to CMS’s Warsaw-based Employment Partner Katarzyna Dulewicz and Vienna-based Dispute Resolution Partner Daniela Karollus-Bruner for their perspective on the process.

Montenegro is continuing to develop its energy sector by creating appropriate legislative, regulatory, institutional, and financial frameworks to encourage greater investment from the private sector. As part of this process, Montenegro is moving towards harmonizing its energy legislation with that of the European Union, the Energy Community, the World Energy Council, and the International Energy Agency, recognizing energy as a pillar of the country’s overall, sustainable, and long-term stable development, with evident positive macro-economic effects.

Working outside of the employer's business premises deeply conflicts with the traditional concept of the working environment based on the worker's physical presence in a determined workplace. Nevertheless, exponential technological progress and globalisation trends have changed widely accepted notions about employment and placed work productivity above any other employment indicator. Therefore, the employee's physical presence in the employer's business premises has ceased to be a decisive condition for their inclusion in the organisation and processes. Furthermore, the COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the significance and benefits of remote work and anticipated its expansion in the years to come.

The new Montenegrin Companies Act ("Official Gazette of Montenegro", no. 65/20) [Zakon o privrednim drustvima] ("Companies Act"), which entered into force on 11 July 2020, is an innovative and thoroughgoing codification of Montenegrin Corporate Law. The legislator opted for a comprehensive legal instrument which, compared to the previous law, contains more detailed and exhaustive rules determining the establishment, management, restructuring, termination and functioning of business entities.

The new law about legal entities/Law of The Companies was adopted at the Official Gazette No. 65/20 on the 03.07.2020 and is in force since the 16.07.2020/ when it was introduced in Montenegro.

Over the past few years CMS advised the OTP Bank Group on an extensive series of acquisitions across Bulgaria, Moldova, and former Yugoslavia. This series of separate deals was shortlisted for CEE Legal Matters’ CEE Deal of the Year in each of the countries involved, actually winning the 2018 Deal of the Year for Bulgaria and the 2019 Deal of the Year Award for Montenegro. We reached out to Eva Talmacsi, who led CMS’s multi-jurisdictional team, to learn more about the firm’s impressive work on OTP’s behalf.