ROMANIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Cosmin Vasile and Alina Tugearu, Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners Attorneys At Law
of Arbitration attached to the German-Romani- an Chamber of Commerce and Industry, mainly used by German/Italian companies and inves- tors). Romania is also a party to several investor-state disputes. Publicly available information shows that Romania has faced 23 International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) cases to date, nine of which are still pend- ing. The latest claim was filed in the first half of 2024 under the bilateral investment treaty between Bulgaria and Romania, following the much-debated bankruptcy of Euroins Romania, one of Romania’s most accessible insurance companies. In early 2024, Romania achieved a significant victory in the long-awaited Rosia Montana multibillion-dollar mining dispute involving Canadian-based Gabriel Resources. The outcome surprised the Romanian govern- ment, which had initially anticipated paying at least USD2 billion and possibly up to USD6.5 billion in compensation. General tendencies in dispute resolution Over recent years, the economy has returned to business as usual, and existing disputes are now reflecting the vitality resulting from normal business disputes. Increasingly, the post-pandemic political climate, the conflict in Ukraine and sanctions imposed on Russia have led to a rise in energy disputes and contractual disputes in general, putting further pressure on businesses. However, investments continue in various sec- tors, including real estate development and infrastructure projects, which remain significant parts of Romania’s economy. In this context, public procurement disputes are a constant issue before the courts, but there are also con-
tinuous modifications to the applicable legisla- tion that are aimed at improving the system. Public procurement legislation is constantly being changed in an attempt to help Romania further improve its public tendering system and make it more flexible so that future large invest- ment projects – such as those financed by the National Resilience and Recovery Plan (NRRP) and economic development in general – can be better attracted. The existence of public pro- curement litigation has frequently been cited as a constant factor for delay in the implementa- tion of European-funded projects, and this has caused the Romanian government to imple- ment a series of strategic measures to ensure the observance of funding-related deadlines, such as eliminating certain formalities, shorten- ing deadlines, etc. Romania has also set up an accessible legal framework aimed at encouraging and facilitat- ing renewable energy source (RES) projects for a straightforward permitting process of renew- able energy capacities. The latest modifica- tions in 2023 aimed to simplify the necessary bureaucratic process for developing renewable electricity generation capacity, by eliminating a mandatory step in the procedure, namely the obtaining of a zoning plan (PUZ in Romanian); modifications were also adopted to simplify the procedure for obtaining a building permit for investments in the renewable energy field. This is in line with Romania’s ambitious targets to sig- nificantly increase renewable energy production by 2030. The end of December 2023 saw the adoption of new legislation on the conduct of representa- tive actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers, transposing EU Direc- tive 2020/1828. The newly regulated concept
1205 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook