This article provides an update and overview of value added tax legislation in Romania, including rules on registration, applicable rates, calculation, invoicing, payment, exemption and refund.

Read: "Value Added Tax in Romania"

The main law and regulations regarding mining operations are:

(i)         Mining Law no.  85 of 2003 (“Mining Law”), as further amended;

(ii)        Decision no. 1208 of 2003 regarding the Approval of the Norms for the Application of the Mining Law;

(iii)       Order no. 197 of 2003 for the Approval of the Methodological Norms regarding the Performance of Specialized Survey Works in the Mining Extractive Sector;

A Romanian subsidiary of Canadian construction company Canam has settled its long running dispute with two local businesses over the building of an office block in Bucharest.

Canam Steel Romania won two arbitral awards worth US$2.5 million after a local developer and contractor failed to pay for its role in the construction of Charles de Gaulle Plaza, Romania’s first steel-structured building, which is now home to Vodafone, Austrian bank Raiffeisen and UniCredit Bank. The developer and contractor paid the second award, totalling some US$250,000, in 2009. In January, Canam reached a settlement agreement with the contractor and developer worth US$2 million regarding the first award.

Read: "Settlement reached in Romanian construction dispute"

Main Regulations

• Law no. 13 of 2007

• Law no. 50 of 1991 Regarding the Authorization of Execution of Construction Works

• Law no. 220 of 2008 Regarding the Establishing of the Promotion System of the Production of Energy from Renewable Energy Sources, as amended by Law no. 139 of 2010

The prospects for power and gas exploration and production sectors in 2010 look good.

Several major power projects are underway, CEZ started works on windfarm projects with a final capacity of 600 MW. The esti­mated costs are about €1.1bn. The European Investment Bank recently approved credit fa­cilities of €200m to finance the first stage of the project. Iberdrola also plans to develop a windfarm project with a first stage capacity of 600 MW, and a final capacity of 900 MW.

Read: "Power, Gas E & P in Romania"

Main regulations

–  Petroleum Law no. 238 of 2004 (“Petroleum Law”)

–  Methodological Norms for the Application of Petroleum Law (“Norms”)

–  Technical instructions, and other regulations issued by the National Agency for Mineral Resources

–  Gas Law no. 351 of 2004 (“Gas Law”)

Read: "Legal Framework of the Petroleum Industry"

1.         Legal Framework

Government Emergency Ordinance no. 34 of 2006 on the Award of Public Contracts, Public Works Concession Contracts and Services Concession Contracts (“GEO 34”)  implements the main provisions of the relevant EU Directives with regard to the public procurement.

GEO 34 provides for the following procedures to be followed for the award of a procurement contract:

a.          Open public tender – takes place in a single stage and any interested party may submit a bid.

Read: "Public Procurement Procedures"

Description of domestic sector

1.       Describe the domestic natural gas sector, including the natural gas production, liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage, pipeline transportation, distribution, commodity sales and trading segments.

Romania is the largest gas producer in Central and Eastern Europe. Last year Romania produced over 12 billion cubic metres of natural gas.

Read: "Gas operations in Romania"

This is a summary of the requirements for access to the Romanian electricity trading market.

I.          The electricity trading market

The Romanian electricity trading market is structured as follows:

1.         The Wholesale Electricity Market includes the following specific markets:

Read: "Requirements for access to the Romanian electricity trading market"

This article presents the relevant legal requirements concerning the notification of the intent to acquire the position of significant shareholder in an Investment Company, as well as some considerations based on our recent practice with the Securities Commission.

Art. 7 (1) (6) of Government Emergency Ordinance no.99/2006 on Credit Institutions and Capital Adequacy defines the Investment Company as a legal person whose regular business is the provision of investment services to third parties and/or the performance of investment banking activities.

Read: "Notification of the Position of Significant Shareholder in an Investment Company"

The legal regime of the employment and assignment of the aliens in Romania is regulated by Emergency Government Ordinance no. 56 of 2007 Regarding the Employment and Assignment of the Aliens and Emergency Government Ordinance no. 194 of 2002 Regarding the Aliens Regime.

As defined by Emergency Government Ordinance no. 56, the alien is the individual who does not have Romanian citizenship or the citizenship of another state member of the European Union or the European Economic Space.

Read: "Employment and Assignment of Aliens"

The recent decision no. 962 of June 4, 2008 of the Bucharest Tribunal set a precedent in Romania regarding the protection of the product form, and packaging shape of the product by registered trademarks.

The plaintiff, Ferrero SpA of Italy (“Ferrero”), is the owner of internationally well-known trademarks such as DUPLO, ROCHER, and KINDER BUENO. These products are protected by sixteen trademarks registered in accordance with the Madrid Agreement. These trademarks protect the form and packaging shape of Ferrero products. The above court decision held that the protection conferred to the form and packaging shape of the products by the registered trademarks of Ferrero is fully enforceable under Romanian law.

Read: "Infringement of Trademarks Protecting the Product Form and Packaging Shape"

Two recent court cases confirmed the statutory protection of the land easements in relation with gas production operations.

Art. 86 of the consolidated Gas Law no. 341 of 2004 („Gas Law”) provides that the concessionaires of gas production perimeters have:

a.         the right of use in relation to to the necessary works for the rehabilitation of the gas production installation;

Read: "Statutory Easements for Gas Production Operations"

The Law no. 344 of 2005 on Measures for Insuring the Compliance with the Intellectual Property Rights within Customs Proceedings (“Law no. 344”) entered into force on February 3, 2006. Law no. 344 brought significant amendments to the procedure introduced by Law no. 202 of 2000.

According to Law no. 344, in order to have an intellectual property right monitored by the customs, the owner of an intellectual property right (“IP Owner”) must file with the Customs Authority a special Declaration whereby:

Read: "New Customs Proceedings in Romania Regarding the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights"

The physical electricity in Romania can be traded on the following markets:

1.      the Wholesale Electricity Market regulated by the Commercial Code of Wholesale Electricity Market of 2004, which includes the Bilateral Agreements Energy Market, the Day-Ahead Market (‘DAM”), the Balancing Market, and the Ancillary Services Market; and

2.      the Retail Energy Market;

3.      the Green Certificates Market.

Read: "Physical Power Trading in Romania"

The strategic importance of petroleum to both consumers and producers, has caused petroleum contracts to retain certain fundamental features over the time. One of the most important such feature is the stability clause whose goal is to guarantee that the terms and conditions of a contract are -frozen- from the date of its conclusion and during the entire term of the contract. (1)

A number of countries, including {but not limited to) those with proven petroleum reserves, such as UK and Norway, do not feel compelled to offer stabilization provisions to attract foreign investments, since they have a good track record in dealing with investors from other states.

Read: "Stability Clause in Petroleum Contracts"