Thought Articles

Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland. Published in November 2014 by European Lawyer Reference Series, part of Thomson Reuters (Professional) UK Limited. This second edition of Sourcing World serves as a single starting point of reference for corporations and their advisers. It provides valuable insights and guidance to international sourcing transactions, covering both contractual and commercial arrangements and their regulation. Written by outsourcing experts, every chapter gives a detailed overview of the legal and regulatory framework within each jurisdiction and of the terms and conditions relevant to finalising an outsourcing deal.

Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Ltd. This article was first published in Getting the Deal Through: Dominance 2015, (published in December 2014; contributing editors Thomas Janssens and Thomas Wessely, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer). The abusive behaviour of dominant firms is prohibited by article 6 of the Romanian Competition Law No. 21/1996 (RCL) and article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Article 6 expressly prohibits the abuse of a dominant position held by one or more undertakings on the Romanian market or on a substantial part of it.

Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Ltd. This article was first published in The Mining Law Review - Edition 3 (published in October 2014 – editor Erik Richer La Flèche). Before 1989, when the Communism regime fell, mineral resources in Romania were exploited by state-owned companies. Although these exploitations were advertised as big economic successes of the communist governments, in reality, most of them were using outdated technology and some caused significant pollution in the mining perimeters. Moreover, in the context of Romania’s negotiations to join the European Union, some of the mining exploitations had to be shut down as they were far from being compliant with the European environmental standards.

This article was first published in The Lawyer - 12 May 2014 The economic trends in Romania since the country joined the EU can be seen as a roller coaster ride. Solid GDP growth throughout 2007 and 2008, encouraged by cheap and accessible European capital, was abruptly replaced by a steep recession as the global economic downturn battered the continent. Following severe public spending cuts and supported by the gradually improving European business environment, Romania’s economy has stabilised in the past three years and returned to growth, albeit at a more modest pace. Furthermore, while not yet out of the woods, the future looks brighter for the local economy. Robust 3.5 per cent GDP growth in 2013 (mainly generated by an excellent agricultural year and increased exports in the automotive sector) is likely to continue this year with a 2 to 3 per cent increase.

The publication addresses the most important legal issues relevant for legal practitioners and business people dealing with cloud computing products and services in 14 jurisdictions across the region.

Following on from the success of the first edition, Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații has recently published a second volume of a directory called “Final Court Decisions on Financial Corrections in Structural Fund Projects” (released in late June 2014). This second edition of the book features a representative national sample of final court decisions on cases related to financial corrections, imposed over the last four-five years on the projects implemented under EU funds programmes by county councils and town halls of county capitals. As with the previous volume in the series, Țuca Zbârcea & Asociații and the Institute for Public Policy (IPP) co-authored the publication of the book, also benefiting from the support from the Romanian Municipalities Association.