The Republic of Serbia has officially closed its border crossings for passengers in road, rail, air and water traffic at 8.00 a.m. on 20 March 2020. The passing of humanitarian aid and crossings of national importance that are approved by the competent authority are still allowed. International passenger traffic to and from the Nikola Tesla Airport has been suspended in accordance with the Government of Serbia’s decision on 19 March 2020 from 12.00 p.m. onwards ...
As the summer season draws closer, a stream of news continues to come our way from the Adriatic coast of our region. Montenegro is the source of updates this time around, as there have been reports about the Stratex Group taking full control over Budvanska Rivijera Hotel Group – a company in which they already hold a 30% ownership stake. The deal would include all of Budvanska Rivijera's assets excluding the St ...
The first upscale exploration of oil and gas in Montenegro started in 1914, when King Nikola Petrovic approved the National Assembly's decision for oil exploration around Lake Skadar. The first well in the area of Crmnica dates back to 1922 - although it produced nothing of significance. In later researches of the Montenegrin offshore, the existence of geological structures with the potential for hiding hydrocarbon deposits was confirmed ...
Serbia is a contracting party to the Energy Community Treaty (ECT), signed in October 2005 between the European Union (EU) and nine South Eastern European countries. Since then, Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia have ceased to be parties upon their accession to the EU and thus are no longer parties to the ECT, while Moldova and Ukraine have become parties to the agreement. One of the explicit aims of the ECT is to support the development of renewable energy ...
After more than a four months and a Phase II (in-depth) investigation, the Competition Commission gave conditional approval, to Sunoko's acquisition of the Star Šecer company and its subsidiary Te-To - the owner of the sugar factory in Senta. No divestments have been required from Sunoko. The ruling presents the finale of one of the most complicated merger cases in Serbia thus far and Karanovic & Nikolic is proud to have been advising MK Group throughout the process ...
Karanović & Nikolić is pleased to announce the election of one of its Partners, Tanja Unguran, to the position of AmCham Serbia's Chair of the Finance & Tax Committee. The Finance & Tax Committee, as one of the seven total AmCham Committees including those in charge of Combating Grey Economy, Healthcare Systems, Corporate and Business Law, Human Resources, Labour Task Force, and Real Estate Task Force, is tasked with improving the business environment via atwo-year agenda ...
Significant changes to the tax regulations in the Republic of Srpska (“RS”) are expected in the coming months. On March 6, the National Assembly of RS passed amendments to the Law on Fiscal Cash Registries. In addition, Parliament approved the Government’s proposals on amendments to several important tax laws, including corporate income tax, personal income tax, social security contributions and property tax ...
Treaties with Luxembourg and the Republic of Korea RatifiedSerbian Parliament ratified the double tax treaty with Luxembourg which was discussed in our recently published tax alert. If Luxembourg follow suit and ratifies the treaty this year it is likely that the treaty will be applicable from 1 January 2017.Parliament also ratified the double tax treaty with the Republic of Korea, signed in January this year. The treaty is based on the standard OECD Model Tax Convention ...
An interesting trend can be noticed recently as the Serbian Tax Administration and Tax Police have raised their level of activity in conducting routine tax inspections in companies across the country ...
A previous Amendment to the Labour law raised some arguable and sensitive issues regarding termination of the employment contract when employee's behaviour represents criminal act. In fact, it was the employer who decided if an employee's behaviour represent a criminal act ...
New Regulations Governing Consumer Claims and Language Use in Consumer Information The Croatian Consumer Protection Act has recently updated how customer claims are to be handled. The receipt of complaints must now be confirmed in writing without delay ...
The draft law governs the organization and functioning of the natural gas sector, rules and conditions for carrying out energy activities in this sector, planning and development of the natural gas market, market regulation, "unbundling" of activities, third party access to natural gas systems ...
At the recently held coordination meeting of IPA (Instrument for Pre Accession Assistance) multi-beneficiary programs in Herceg Novi, the main focus was put on announcing the importance of EU funds for the implementation of important internal reforms and the progress of the Western Balkan countries towards membership in the European Union ...
Since mid-February, there has been an ongoing debate in the public sphere regarding the high profile case that found the global IT giant Apple and FBI on opposite sides of the legal spectrum. The case's background involves the 2015 San Bernardino shooting incident in USA, and the fact that one of the perpetrators was in possession of an iPhone potentially containing relevant information for the ensuing investigation ...
Since mid-February, there has been an ongoing debate in the public sphere regarding the high profile case that found the global IT giant Apple and FBI on opposite sides of the legal spectrum. The case's background involves the 2015 San Bernardino shooting incident in USA, and the fact that one of the perpetrators was in possession of an iPhone potentially containing relevant information for the ensuing investigation ...
Since mid-February, there has been an ongoing debate in the public sphere regarding the high profile case that found the global IT giant Apple and FBI on opposite sides of the legal spectrum. The case's background involves the 2015 San Bernardino shooting incident in USA, and the fact that one of the perpetrators was in possession of an iPhone potentially containing relevant information for the ensuing investigation ...
Following publication of the Regulation (EU) No. 2015/2424 which is part of the reform legislative package that also replaces the existing Trade Mark Directive, the long awaited reform of the existing Community trade mark will enter into force on 23 March 2016. The most evident change is that the Community trade mark will be renamed the European Union trade mark (EUTM), adopting the terminology of the Lisbon Treaty ...
The National Employment Service changed its years-long practice regarding the extension of work permits for persons on secondment. In particular, pursuant to Article 19 of the Law on the Employment of foreigners, work permits based on secondment are obtained for a period of the duration of an agreement between the local employer - who is the service user, and a foreign employer, but no longer than for one year ...
On 20 April 2018, the amendments to the Law on Foreign Exchange (the “Law”) were adopted and will enter into force on 28 April 2018. Exceptionally, the application of certain provisions related to the assuming of competencies over foreign exchange control by the National Bank of Serbia is delayed until 1 January 2019 ...
The turmoil within the Croatian retail company Agrokor, which owns Mercator, the largest Slovenian retailer, caused a significant stir in the Slovenian public, with the suppliers and especially in politics ...
Two and a half years after the expiry of the deadline for the implementation of the Third Energy Package, the Macedonian authorities seem eager to finalise this process in the near future. The new draft legislation has been in the pipeline for quite some time, but until now its adoption was postponed due to different reasons ...
We have seen emerging markets in Central and Eastern Europe opening up and developing quite quickly. Some of them have done so through their ascension to the European Union and others by organising their legislation in accordance with European standards, opening up borders, having foreign investors come in, as well as putting in place free trade agreements and investment incentives. Of course, transitional economies traditionally have a lot to offer to foreign investors ...
Artificial intelligence is a burning topic in many sectors today and the legal industry is no exception. Recently, at the World Services Group’s annual employment law1 conference held in February, AI was heavily debated along with its’ impact not only on the legal profession, lawyers, clients, the way business is done, but also our traditional understanding of concepts such as “law” or “justice” ...
Artificial intelligence is a burning topic in many sectors today and the legal industry is no exception. Recently, at the World Services Group's annual employment law conference held in February, AI was heavily debated along with its' impact not only on the legal profession, lawyers, clients, the way business is done, but also our traditional understanding of concepts such as "law" or "justice" ...
Over the past two years, various media outlets have been reporting on increased investor interest for the Serbian real estate market, with a particular focus on Belgrade. Goran Vesić, the city manager, recently substantiated these reports by claiming that Belgrade's Public Land Development Agency made a total of 772 business deals with investors over the course of last year alone ...
