Legal developments and events

Legal transition developments

Recent legal developments in transition countries  (0.2Mb), Jan - July 2009. Compiled by the EBRD's Office of the General Counsel.

UNCITRAL Working Group, Vienna, 7-8 December 2009

The EBRD attended the UNCITRAL Working Group Session on Procurement to discuss proposals for the revision of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Procurement of Goods, Construction and Services, adopted on 14 April 1994. The EBRD presented a letter of support and conveyed the Bank’s comments and proposals relating to the draft of the revised Public Procurement Model Law.The session was also attended by representatives of other international organisations, i.e. World Bank, OECD, African Development Bank, WTO and European Commission.

The EBRD also held a meeting with representatives of UNCITRAL to explore possible cooperation to promote the revised UNCITRAL Model Law as an international public procurement benchmark for reform of the public procurement sector in the EBRD’s countries of operations.

It is expected that the next session of the Working Group will be held within the next six months and that the revised text of the Public Procurement Model Law will be issued by UNICITRAL in 2011, together with supporting guidance regarding its implementation.

High Level Policy Meeting, Belgrade 9-10 December 2009

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Global Corporate Governance Forum and the IFC’s Southeast Europe Advisory Services organised a two-day high level policy meeting  (0.3Mb) to help improve corporate governance practices for banks in the region. The meeting was attended by banking and securities regulators, banking associations and representatives of banks from the region.

The objectives of the meeting were to:present lessons learned from the financial crisis, international trends and best practice in bank governance and to develop a series of policy recommendations on the governance of banks in Southeastern Europe and to help individual countries develop an action plan for the improvement of bank governance.

Corporate Debt Restructuring Workshop, 2 December 2009

The EBRD participated in a workshop  (0.1Mb) on Corporate Debt Restructuring, organised by the Latvian Ministry of Justice (Ministry) and the World Bank Group.
The workshop was held at the Hotel de Rome in Riga, and was attended by, amongst others, representatives of the Ministry, the judiciary, local banks, and the local business and legal community.
The objective of the workshop was to promote new out-of-court debt restructuring principles, developed by the Ministry with the support of the World Bank. The principles set out guidelines for companies, creditors and state institutions in negotiating out-of-court workouts. The EBRD delivered a presentation on the role of the courts in debt restructuring and outlined the work of the Legal Transition Programme (LTP) and its judicial capacity focus area.
The EBRD also had the opportunity to discuss LTP’s judicial capacity work with a number of delegates, including Latvian counterparts and World Bank lawyers.

International Insolvency Law Conference, Belgrade, 1-2 December 2009

The EBRD recently publicised the results of the 2009 Insolvency Assessment with particular reference to the role of insolvency administrators, at the Second International  Conference on Contemporary Tendencies in International Insolvency Law  (0.1Mb) organised by the Bankruptcy Supervisory Agency and the German aid agency GTZ in Belgrade. The event was attended by insolvency lawyers and other practitioners from across the region.

Eurasia Regional Workshop on Corporate Governance

The EBRD participated in the Eurasia Regional Workshop  (0.1Mb) on Developing and Implementing Corporate Governance Codes in Tbilisi, 24-25th November, this event was jointly organised by the IFC, EBRD and the Global Corporate Governance Forum. The EBRD gave a presentation on the 'Codes and Standards for Banks and Financial Institutions: the EBRD-OECD Policy Brief on Corporate Governance of Banks in Eurasia'. The event was well attended by representatives of relevant government ministries, stock exchanges, national banks and other financial institutions.

New Albanian Law on Municipal and Corporate Bonds 

The law, approved by the Albanian Parliament in October, was developed by a working group jointly led by the EBRD and the Albanian FSA and including representatives from ministries and the Bank of Albania, as well as local law firms and banks. The new law was presented to stakeholders and media at an event on 20th November organised by the EBRD in Tirana. Speaking at the event, Elisabeta Gjoni, chairperson of the Albanian FSA, praised the EBRD and highlighted the new legislation’s importance in building Albania’s capital markets.

The legal reform project implemented by the EBRD can also be cited for meeting best international practice in terms of its development. For example, before the draft law was sent for government approval, the Bank (with Italian support) implemented a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) which helped identify shortcomings in the proposed law.

This helped to ensure the law was well drafted and gave confidence to all stakeholders before discussions took place in government and in parliament.

Conference on Corporate Governance, 10-11 November 2009

The EBRD attended the 4th annual Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) Conference  (0.1Mb) on Corporate Governance which took place in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Representatives from the EBRD made presentations to around 30 delegates from 20 different institutions. The purpose of the conference was to discuss and progress a joint Corporate Governance Approach Statement  (0.1Mb) signed by 30 DFIs in October 2007 . The Statement, which was implicitly based on the OECD’s Principles of Good Corporate Governance, committed all signatories to (among other things) develop guidelines, policies or procedures on corporate governance considerations in their investment operations. Since 2007, a Working Group (including a representative of the EBRD) has met at regular intervals to review how the Statement was implemented and what could be done to facilitate such process.

It was suggested at the Conference that the Working Group undertakes the preparation of a methodology (‘Toolkit’) destined at providing detailed guidelines on how the Statement is implemented. Such methodology should be built on toolkits developed by different DFIs but adapted for use of DFIs who do not have dedicated staff for its implementation. Completion of this document may take place during the first half of 2010.

Law in transition online

On 22nd October the EBRD launched the autumn online edition of the bi-annual journal Law in transition. The event was held in Zagreb and the focus of this edition was about enhancing public access to legal information .

In this edition of Law in transition EBRD highlights a number of initiatives being undertaken in the region to promote and enhance transparency in the provision of legal information in the public sector. The launch event was well attended and featured a speech by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice.

Public Procurement Network (PPN) Conference

         The EBRD participated in the PPN conference in Rome on 15-16 October 2009. This event was attended by representatives of Public Procurement Offices from all of the EU member states, and EU candidate or potential candidate countries (Croatia, FYR Macedonia and Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia). The theme of the conference was the implementation of the EU Remedies Directive, and the establishment of public procurement review bodies. The EBRD gave a presentation at the conference, this was an overview of the Bank's Legal Transition Programme, and an outline of the proposal for an assessment of public procurement frameworks in the EBRD region.

Financial Law Issues for Lawyers in Transition Economies, 1-3 July 2009

This series of seminars  (0.3Mb) is held over a three day period at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. It follows the highly successful first such series held in 2008 and offers the opportunity to examine in depth, with leading academics and experienced practitioners, the key issues of particular sensitivity for transition economies in areas such as concession-based project finance, public private partnerships, and secured lending. The seminars, which will be designed to stimulate open discussion (with delegate numbers being limited to approximately 35) will be of interest to all lawyers based, or practising in, transition economies.

A copy of selected excerpts  (0.3Mb) from the 2008 seminar are also available.

Regional Telecommunications Conference

EBRD held a conference (agenda  (0.1Mb)) in Tbilisi on 29th May on the progress of reform in the telecommunications sector. The conference was attended by government policy-makers and industry regulators from EBRD's countries of operation including Georgia, Central, Eastern and Southern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States plus Mongolia. Industry experts presented the results of a comparative assessment of 31 countries, showing achievements in fixed, mobile and fast internet (broadband) communications.

The EBRD continues to monitor developments in the reform process in all the countries that it operates. The report  (3.8Mb) on the assessment of the communications sector will assist the EBRD to measure legal and regulatory risk, guiding its specific investment activities. It will also use the report to guide its ongoing efforts to assist legal and regulatory reform.

Book launch - Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Russia; how to improve the legal framework, 22 June 2009

The publication, which is in Russian, represents a collection of contributions from various prominent authors: leading politicians, public officials, lawyers, bankers and experts who share their views on the current status of PPPs in Russia and the ways to enhance it. The book is the result of a joint effort by the EBRD and the Duma’s Sub-Committee on Public-Private Partnerships of the Russian Duma Committee on Economic Policy and Entrepreneurship. The formal launch took place in the Russian Duma building in Moscow on 22 June 2009, following a session of the PPP Expert Council of which the Bank is a member.

Legal Panel - EBRD Annual Meeting & Business Forum, 15-16 May 2009

Good corporate governance for financial institutions is vital for the development of a healthy economy. Indeed, one of the many causes of the current crisis is to be found in bad corporate governance and risk management practices in many banks around the world. But how is it possible to improve current practices? What should the role of regulators and international organisations be? And what exactly are the issues that need to be tackled? Many different actions are being taken to tackle the crisis. History will judge the effectiveness of solutions put forward at this time.

These were some of the matters under discussion at the Legal Panel organised by the Office of the General Counsel, during the Bank’s Annual Meeting.

Capital markets in Armenia

EBRD presented the "Development of Corporate Governance Code in Armenia  (1.1Mb)" at a conference on Capital Markets in Yerevan, Armenia on 27 February 2009. Other speakers who presented at the conference were from the Central Bank of Armenia, Grant Thornton and NASDAQ OMX.

Secured transactions reform and access to credit - book launch

This is the title of a publication launched at the EBRD headquarters on 15 January 2009. Edited by Frederique Dahan from the EBRD Legal Transition team and former EBRD consultant John Simpson, it looks at ways of easing access to finance through reforming the collateral law (otherwise known as secured transactions law). The result of discussions at an international conference at the EBRD in 2006, the publication brings together some of the best experts in the field.

IFC events in Baku

January 14th -16th 2009 saw two events, organised by the IFC in Baku, on Corporate governance. EBRD participated in both the events detailed below:

• Developing and implementing corporate governance codes of best practice in Eurasia: Rationale and process  (0.1Mb).  This workshop was moderated by Richard Frederick, Senior Consultant, Global Corporate Governance Forum and hosted by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economic Development.
  
• Azerbaijan corporate governance code development  (0.5Mb).
  

The new mortgage legal framework - what it means for market players and supporting institutions?

This is the title of a conference organised by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce and the EBRD held in Chisinau, Moldova on Friday 24 October 2008.  The main objective of the conference was to provide an overview of the new mortgage legal regime in Moldova and how it aims to contribute to the development of the mortgage market and to explain some of the new features. The conference provided an opportunity for market participants to discuss any questions they had regarding the implementation of the law.

A Guide for taking mortgages in the Republic of Moldova was distributed at this occasion. The Guide is intended as a practical tool for all market players, whether bankers, lawyers, notaries, etc.