In July 2020, Polish Parliament passed an amendment to the Act on Control of Certain Investments of 24 July 2015, which entered into force on 24 July 2020 (the Amendment). That Amendment has extended the scope of government’s control over the acquisition of stakes in Polish entities. Investors from outside of the EEA, EU, or OECDwould need to obtain clearance for the acquisition of a stake in Polish companies (or partnerships) carrying out business in sectors that the government has identified as being of strategic importance.
The concept behind the Amendment was not originally domestic – the Polish government responded to the EU call to protect the “European crown jewels” from buyouts by non-EU investors at lowered price while the lowered valuations were caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. EU law (regulation 2019/452), however, does not provide for a centralised system of control over the foreign investments, but rather the information exchange network between member states. Member states are allowed to implement the measures of screening the foreign direct investments in their territory on the grounds of security or public order. Many EU countries have provisions regarding some form of control over foreign investments, allowing the national governments to monitor and, in certain cases, object investments if these are considered undesired for various reasons.
The new Construction Act has been adopted in its 3rd reading by the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament in the wording of a comprehensive amendment submitted by Mr. Kolovratník. The unified state building administration should therefore be put into effect next year and the new act as a whole will become effective from 1.7. 2023 (if also approved by the Senate and signed by the President). It is not clear at this moment if the Senate will return the Act back with amendments and in such a case there may not be enough time (and potentially votes) to pass it through Parliament before the elections which will take place this autumn. If this occurs there would not be any new Construction Act and the legislative process will have to start again from the beginning. The state building administration change is so revolutionary that it may cause disruption in the construction sector in the short term. On the other hand, the overall impact of the new law could potentially be positive for development projects in the Czech Republic.
The Sejm has voted in favour of the draft “temporary” review of the civil procedure, which we addressed in January. Technically, this is an amendment to the Act of 2 March 2020, rather than to the Code of Civil Procedure, and the new solutions will apply for one year after lifting the state of epidemic hazard.
It is expected that the Unified Patent Court (UPC), the proposed common patent court in the EU, will be operational as of spring 2022. The UPC will provide an efficient forum for the enforcement of patents in Europe, ending the need for parallel litigation in different member states of the EU. It will also harmonize substantive patent law with regard to the scope and limitations of the rights conferred by the patent and the remedies for infringement. However, not all patents should be included in the UPC jurisdiction.
The amendment of the Commercial Companies Code (hereinafter “CCC”) to introduce holding law has already been discussed in our material 
