President Duda has signed the new law on the Central Communications Port (CCP) (see our summary of the new law here and it will take effect on 20 June 2018. However, questions remain on the scope of Poland’s mega-investment project.
Prime Minister’s Volte
A key element of the plan for CCP is that the existing Warsaw Chopin Airport (which is currently used by approximately 16 million passengers annually, with potential growth to capacity of 22-24 million) would close and all commercial traffic would move to CCP, thus creating an efficient hub for LOT Airlines. However, recently, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the governing Law and Justice Party candidate for Warsaw Mayor Patryk Jaki both stated in interviews that Chopin Airport would not close, but its usage would decrease and serve mostly Warsaw citizens and domestic traffic. Although these statements may have been influenced by local government elections, which will be held in the fall of 2018, if they do represent the government’s position, they throw into question a key point of CCP’s economic viability and have unsettled the market. Continue Reading
If there is a holy book for finance lawyers, at least on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, it would be the Loan Market Association (LMA) standard form.
On 8 March 2018, the European Commission (EC) published its long-awaited new FinTech Action Plan. The EC understands FinTech to be technology-enabled innovation in financial services, and the strategy covers developments related to new technologies which are changing the financial industry and the way consumers and firms access services. At the same time, the action plan also covers related challenges, such as cyber threats, and proposes the assessment of innovative technologies, such as blockchain, cryptocurrencies and cloud computing services.
One of the greatest conceptual changes and innovations of the currently effective new Civil Code (Act V of 2013 on the Civil Code) was the permissive regulation of the corporate rules, which is more flexible than the former binding approach.
One of the many questions asked by our clients is: “Does Polish law recognise the concept of ‘piercing the corporate veil?’” Is it possible to disregard the separate legal personality of a company or corporation and make shareholders liable for the debts of the company? This question has been asked since the introduction of the market economy in Poland (in 1989) and there is still no clear answer. 
On 15 January 2018, the Ministry of Digital Affairs (Ministry) held a conference to summarize the outcome of a public consultation on Poland’s draft GDPR implementation law. The consultation invited all citizens and entrepreneurs to express their opinion on the draft law on the protection of personal data, which was released by the Ministry on 14 September 2017.
The Slovak Ministry of Justice was very busy last year, and the recent amendment to the Commercial Code introduces a number of provisions that are aimed at fixing local malpractice related to mergers and liquidation of companies, use of “straw men” as executives and the impact of bad decisions of shareholders on the local affiliates.
Increasingly in recent years, businesses and other organizations have sought to understand the complex nature of the legal relationships between the European Commission, EU member states and the European Parliament, and to engage more effectively with “government,” whether at local, national or European levels.
On 13 January 2018, a new regulation for the provision of payment services will come into force in the Czech Republic, introducing the most significant changes to the Czech banking market in recent years.