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New legislative changes promote flexicurity in employment relations in Romania
The first part of 2023 continued last year's trend of substantial changes to Romanian labour legislation, which is of real interest to both employers and employees. As such, both Law no. 53/2003 on the Labour Code (“Labour Code”) and Law no. 367/2022 on social dialogue (“Law on Social Dialogue”) have undergone several changes, some aimed at clarifying legal issues identified in practice and others at promoting flexibility at work and work-life balance. In this article, we present the latest legislative changes, as well as our recommendations for their implementation. I. Amendments to the Labour Code The latest legislative amendments continue the European and national policies implemented in recent
Recent ECJ judgement sparks controversies on the Romanian statute of limitations for criminal liability
The Romanian regulatory context In recent years, the statute of limitations for criminal liability in Romania has been the subject of numerous debates among legal scholars and practitioners. This is because in 2018 the Romanian Constitutional Court rendered a binding decision declaring as unconstitutional, in part, the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code on interrupting the statute of limitations for criminal liability. The Constitutional Court issued this binding decision because the Romanian legislator had failed to amend the respective provisions, and as a result has divided the jurisprudence of Romanian criminal courts into two camps of interpretation, namely: (i) one camp stating that the statute of limitations cannot
Kinstellar advises SFC Solutions on the sale-and-leaseback of its industrial facilities to WDP Romania
Kinstellar is delighted to announce that it has advised SFC Solutions Automotive Romania, a leading automotive-parts producer, on the sale-and-leaseback transaction of an industrial site, to the Belgian logistics property developer, WDP Romania. The facility is situated in Arges county, in an established automotive production cluster centered around Dacia Renault’s production facilities. The facility has a gross lettable area of ca. 20,000 sqm and will be rented by the seller under a long-term lease. Our team’s work on the matter included assistance on all due diligence matters, negotiations and finalization of all transaction documents. Victor Constantinescu, Managing Partner of the Bucharest office
Kinstellar advises Yanolja Cloud on its acquisition of a leading B2B travel solution provider
Kinstellar, together with a lead counsel Watson Farley & Williams, have successfully advised Yanolja Cloud, a leading global provider of AI-based SaaS solutions for the hospitality and leisure industries, on the multi-jurisdictional acquisition of Go Global Travel (GGT), a B2B travel technology company that distributes its inventory of more than one million hotels and other travel products from 200 countries to over 20,000 client partners. The acquisition of GGT from AMI Opportunities Fund will give Yanolja Cloud unparalleled distribution capabilities, making it a one-of-a-kind company and allowing properties of all types, sizes, and budget ranges – and in every corner of the world – to digitize property operations.
Romanian Competition Council issues draft report addressing permitting bottlenecks in the renewables sector
The Romanian Competition Council (“RCC”) published today, 19 July 2023, a preliminary report following its study on the potential market barriers to producers accessing the local energy market from renewable energy sources (“RES”), given the applicable permitting process. Romanian Competition Council report on the permitting of new RES capacities In brief, the RCC concluded that the process of obtaining all permits and authorisations needed for the commissioning of new RES capacities is cumbersome and time-consuming, in spite of some simplification steps already taken, and may be discouraging to investors. Some of the main RCC findings and recommendations included the following: The
Kinstellar advises Jantzen Renewables on the sale of the Helios 1 photovoltaic cluster in Romania to OMV Petrom
Kinstellar’s team in Romania has advised Danish developer Jantzen Renewables ApS on its transaction with OMV Petrom, the largest integrated energy company in Southeast Europe, for the purchase of the Helios 1 photovoltaic cluster in Romania. With the installed power estimated to be approximately 710 MW, the cluster will be one of Southeast Europe's most significant photovoltaic projects, powering around 280,000 Romanian households annually. Kinstellar advised on all matters pertaining to the transaction, including on the due-diligence and the negotiations with OMV Petrom. The team was led by Iustinian Captariu, Partner and Co-Head of the firm-wide Energy service line, and by Victor Constantinescu, Managing Partner
“Green Claims” in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia
On 22 March 2023, the European Commission published a proposal for a Directive on Green Claims. The proposed Directive aims to tackle false environmental claims by ensuring that consumers receive reliable, comparable and verifiable environmental information on products and services across the European Union. By laying down clear criteria on how companies should evidence environmental claims, along with mandating an EU labelling scheme and new enforcement procedures to secure compliance, the Directive on Green Claims is designed to enable better environmental decision-making by consumers and to reduce so called “green washing” (spurious environmentally friendly claims). However, it will likely still be some time
Kinstellar appoints new Employment & Labour Law Service Line Co-Heads
Kinstellar is delighted to announce the appointment of Dániel Péter (Managing Associate, Budapest) and Cătălin Roman (Senior Associate, Bucharest) as Co-Heads of the firm-wide Employment & Labour law service line. Dániel and Cătălin will support Nina Tsifudina, Partner in our Sofia office and firm-wide Head of Employment & Labour law, on the development of this increasingly important service line. Both Dániel and Cătălin bring extensive experience and a proven track record in employment law, making them well suited to lead the practice and navigate the complexities of this ever-evolving field. Dániel Péter heads the Employment & Labour Law service line in the Budapest office. Dániel
Top hiring and training incentives for employers in Romania
In order to stimulate employment, the Romanian state offers employers a number of relatively easily accessible job incentive programmes. Job incentive programmes imply accessing state aid, within the limits of budgetary funds, with the aim of creating new jobs and, respectively, of stimulating the employment of categories of people considered vulnerable.As these programmes are not well known or used in practice, this article aims to present the main incentives available to employers for hiring or training new employees. Click on this link or the image below to read an overview prepared by our employment law experts.
Further changes introduced to Romania’s FDI regime
Romania has just introduced additional amendments to its foreign direct investment (“FDI”) screening regime, further broadening the scope of what was already one of the more far-reaching FDI regimes in the European Union. The changes were enacted under Law no. 164/2023, published in the Official Gazette of Romania on 7 June 2023 (the “FDI Amendment Law”) and applicable as of 10 June 2023, on approving Government Emergency Ordinance no. 46/2022 on measures for applying EU Regulation 2019/452 establishing a framework for the examination of foreign direct investment in the Union (the “EU FDI Regulation”) and amending Competition Law no. 21/1996 (“GEO 46/2022”). GEO 46/2022 introduced the new FDI framework in
Five years of GDPR: An overview of GDPR implementation in Romania
As May 2023 marks the fifth anniversary of the implementation of GDPR[1], we have prepared an overview of the five years of regulatory struggle in Romania since the regulation came into effect. By examining the value of the sanctions and the types of violations, we can identify some regulatory trends of the local practice. Statistics on fines In the first year of GDPR (i.e., May 2018–May 2019), the Romanian Data Protection Authority (“the Authority”) did not issue any fines, but only recommendations[2], even if a significant number of ex-officio investigations were performed (namely 336). This was a year of accommodation. In the following years (May 2019–end of 2021), the Authority continued to carry
Kinstellar advises a syndicate of leading banks on a EUR 500 million senior facility granted to RCS & RDS in Romania
Kinstellar, together with Linklaters LLP, has successfully advised a syndicate of leading banks—led by ING Bank N.V., London Branch and comprising ING Bank N.V., Citigroup Europe plc Dublin – Romania Branch, UniCredit Bank S.A., Raiffeisen Bank S.A., BRD – Groupe Société Générale S.A., and ING Bank N.V. Amsterdam, Bucharest Branch—on a EUR 500 million senior facility agreement granted to Romanian telecommunications service provider RCS & RDS. The loan consists of a term loan in the amount of EUR 150 million, a revolving loan in the total amount of EUR 100 million, and one or more additional facilities in an aggregate amount of up to EUR 250 million with a maturity of up to five years. The amount