Privatization on hold, August 2020

In May 2020, a group of Romanian senators have proposed a legal enactment to prohibit the sale of shares owned by the Romanian state for a two-year period.

Such proposal has been motivated based on the erratic economic fluctuations generated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and measures imposed as a result of the same, including the State of Emergency imposed by the President of Romania, in force at the moment when the legal enactment was proposed.

Although the legal enactment proposal has received a negative endorsement from the Romanian Government and has been subject to a constitutionality check by the Romanian Constitutional Court, the same has in the end been promulgated by the President of Romania on August 13, 2020, in the form of Law no. 173/2020 on certain measures for the protection of national interests in economic activity (“Law 173/2020”).