Member News

Mason Hayes & Curran | Ireland’s Employment Permits Bill 2022 Published

The Employment Permits Bill 2022 was published on 4 October 2022. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has stated that the purpose of the legislation is to make the system more responsive to Ireland’s evolving labour market. We review the key aspects of the new legislation. Despite COVID-19 and travel restrictions, there has been a steady rise in demand for employment permits in Ireland, with organisations increasingly struggling to hire suitably skilled people within the EU. Consolidation This legislation will consolidate...

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Chapter News

ECB | Christine Lagarde, Luis de Guindos: Monetary policy statement

Frankfurt am Main, 27 October 2022 | Good afternoon, the Vice-President and I welcome you to our press conference. The Governing Council today decided to raise the three key ECB interest rates by 75 basis points. With this third major policy rate increase in a row, we have made substantial progress in withdrawing monetary policy accommodation. We took today’s decision, and expect to raise interest rates further, to ensure the timely return of inflation to our two per cent medium-term inflation...

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Chapter News

ECB recalibrates targeted lending operations to help restore price stability over the medium term

ECB recalibrates third series of targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO III) to ensure consistency with broader monetary policy normalisation process Recalibration will help address unexpected and extraordinary inflation increases by reinforcing transmission of policy rates to bank lending conditions From 23 November 2022, interest rate on all remaining TLTRO III operations to be indexed to average applicable key ECB interest rates from that date onward Existing interest rate calculation maintained for period up to 22 November 2022 Modification...

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Member News

Ogletree Deakins | Contractor Vaccine Mandate Still On Hold, For Now

The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force recently issued updated guidance on the federal contractor vaccine mandate and COVID-19 safety requirements. At least for now, the government is still not taking steps to mandate vaccines or enforce contract clauses implementing Executive Order (EO) 14042. In August 2022, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals narrowed the scope of an injunction that had barred enforcement of the contractor vaccine mandate nationwide.  On October 14, 2022, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force and the...

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Chapter News

European Green Deal: EU Commission proposes rules for cleaner air and water

Today the Commission is proposing stronger rules on ambient air, surface and groundwater pollutants, and treatment of urban wastewater. Clean air and water are essential for the health of people and ecosystems. Air pollution alone means nearly 300,000 Europeans die prematurely each year, and the proposed new rules will reduce deaths resulting from levels of the main pollutant PM2.5 above World Health Organization guidelines by more than 75% in ten years. Across air and water, all of the new...

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Chapter News

Payments: EU Commission proposes to accelerate the rollout of instant payments in euro

The Commission has today adopted a legislative proposal to make instant payments in euro, available to all citizens and businesses holding a bank account in the EU and in EEA countries. The proposal aims to ensure that instant payments in euro are affordable, secure, and processed without hindrance across the EU. Instant payments allow people to transfer money at any time of any day within ten seconds. This is much faster compared to traditional credit transfers, which are received by...

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Chapter News

A Marshall plan for Ukraine: G7 Presidency and European Commission to invite experts to a conference on the reconstruction of the war-torn country

Joint op-ed on Ukraine Reconstruction Conference by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen The courage shown by Ukrainians since Russia invaded their country is impressive. Their resilience and steadfastness in the face of this violation of international law are equally impressive. Ultimately, it is because of the courage shown by Ukraine that we will be gathering together on 25 October in Berlin, where we intend to discuss with experts how the international...

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Member News

Cozen O’Connor | With Signs of Enforcement on Horizon, CFIUS Releases First Set of Penalty Guidelines

On October 20, 2022, the U.S. Department of Treasury, acting in its role as Chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), published a new set of “Enforcement Penalty and Guidelines” (the guidelines). This marks the first time since CFIUS was established in 1975 that it provided any such guidance material for parties subject to CFIUS’s statutory purview. CFIUS is charged with identifying and mitigating risks to U.S. national security arising from foreign acquisitions of...

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Member News

Littler | Recent Human Rights Due Diligence Law Developments in the European Union, Switzerland, and Japan

National and supranational legislatures continue to develop laws requiring employers to conduct due diligence of their operations and those of their business partners in order to address human rights risks such as forced labor and child labor.  Recently, the European Union (EU), Switzerland, and Japan have rolled out such laws, described below: EU’s Corporate Due Diligence and Corporate Accountability Directive In October 2021, we reported on the EU’s Draft Directive on Corporate Due Diligence and Corporate Accountability (the “Draft Directive”). At...

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Chapter News

Russia/Ukraine: EEAS launches a new tool to help navigate in disinformation environment

It’s been eight months since Russia launched its full-scale aggression against Ukraine. Already a year ago, in autumn last year, the military build-up became obvious, as were efforts to lay the ground for the aggression in the information space. In the last three months leading up to the invasion of 24 February, EEAS East Stratcom Task Force observed a distinctive spike in disinformation narratives promoted by the Russian (dis)information ecosystem. In outlets known for spreading disinformation, the use of the...

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