During its summit in Elmau (Germany), the Group of Seven (G7) endorsed the Emerging Market Climate Action Fund (EMCAF) as an example of a concrete innovative and market-led approach to mobilise private investments for climate relevant infrastructure and to enhance multilateral finance and collaboration. In addition, Germany announced to increase their investment in the fund. EMCAF is an innovative blended finance fund initiated jointly by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI) to finance climate mitigation and...

By R.K. Gardner, New World Technology Partners | Digital technology, often expressed as Information and Communications Technology (ICT) embodies a more expansive and vulnerable array of elements than has been considered in traditional cyberspace. The pace of introduction and (often hasty) adoption of new and emerging technologies, applications and information artifacts, upon which enterprises and government institutions/agencies rely to conduct business, has become a global system-of-systems, composed of numerous interdependent components and myriad channels. They operate in a rapidly changing...

What does this mean for your company? The special bilateral agreements signed between Luxembourg and the Belgian, French and German authorities concerning cross-border workers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic will come to an end on 30 June 2022 – including, in principle, their social security exemptions (unless the relevant agreements are once again extended). As a consequence, from 1 July 2022, the general rules on the taxation of employment income received by Belgian, French and German cross-border commuters (i.e.,...

Equal opportunity in the job market is not yet a given for everyone in the Netherlands; discrimination when recruiting and selecting new employees still occurs. The bill to oversee equal opportunities for recruitment and selection (Wetsvoorstel toezicht gelijke kansen voor werving en selectie) seeks to change this. The bill aims to create equal opportunities in the recruitment and selection process and to prevent discrimination in the labor market. The most important part of this bill is that employers and...

On Thursday, the leaders of the 27 member states gathered in Brussels for the European Council summit where the most high-profile topic undoubtedly was the potential candidate status to the large, war-torn Ukraine and its small neighbor Moldova. As expected, history was indeed made at the summit when EU leaders granted Ukraine and Moldova candidate status in the late evening of Thursday, leaving Western Balkan leaders in an intense fury and disappointment. The rapid decisions on Ukraine and Moldova have consequently increased...

The week of June 12, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released two important guidance documents to prepare the public for the implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) on June 21, 2022. (For more information, see our previous client alert on the UFLPA.) In brief, the UFLPA requires CBP to apply a rebuttable presumption that any imported goods mined, produced or manufactured wholly or in part in China’s...

In this News Update, we discuss the European Commission's consultations on the PSD2 review, open finance and data sharing; the bill amending the Trust Offices Supervision Act 2018 concerning measures to prohibit trust services in cases involving high integrity risks; and the consultation on the Recovery and Resolution Insurers Amendment Act. We further highlight some other financial regulatory publications issued since our last News Update was published. European Commission | Consultations on the PSD2 review, open finance and data sharing On...

Summer Business Activities That May Require Liability Coverage The summer is a wonderful time to be outside enjoying the weather and possibly taking some well deserved time off.  Many businesses open their doors and engage in fun activities that include water sports, barbeques and more. Accidents happen anytime, anywhere, and no matter what type of business you’re running. With that, we’d like to emphasize the need and importance of having liability insurance for summertime business and activities.  You should consider having, or at...