The first requirement set by market participants, including the Foreign Investors Council, regarding the legal environment is certainly the stability and the durability of the legal framework. In practical terms, this means that the “rules of the game” on the market, which are shaped in certain legal norms, must be known and predictable for all market participants.
Furthermore, regulations must be clear or unambiguous in terms of the contents of the norms that comprise them. This enables all market participants to properly plan their operations. Frequent amendments to laws always have an adverse impact on the stability of the legal framework.
Moreover, the adoption of new regulations and amendments to existing one must be preceded by a public debate. In this regard, it is important that the proponents of new regulations – most commonly ministries – should listen to the ideas, proposals and demands of the market regarding the amending of individual regulations, all with the end goal of improving the legal environment over the long term.
A good example of this is the Ministry of Justice, which recognised the FIC’s long-standing initiative to improve the system for the enforcement of civil law and provided the Council with the opportunity to participate in the Working Group to amend the Law on Enforcement and Security and thus directly relate members’ recommendations and comments related to amendments to this law.
The FIC welcomes this practice and calls on all other proponents of new or amended regulations to involve the Council directly in the process of drafting regulations, as that provides for a proper overview of the best solutions that will be practically sustainable in the application.
The FIC Legal Committee will continue in future to carefully analyse whether regulations are adequately applied in practice and will clearly indicate when that is not the case
When it comes to advancing the rule of law, we are actually referring to improvements to the legal regulations that impact on that, including every individual amendment to regulations brought by the legislator.
In terms of the recommendations included in last year’s White Book, it is also important to note that on issues singled out as priorities by the FIC Legal Committee, such as bankruptcy legislation and foreign exchange operations, we should develop high expectations that we will succeed, in dialogue with Government representatives, to set clear guidelines for amending these laws, and all of that in accordance with the comments and suggestions already provided by the FIC.
The priorities of the FIC Legal Committee are confirmed in the two-year programme adopted at the committee’s session. The Legal Committee was given the opportunity to represent the stances of the Council in several working groups, such as working groups for amending the civil procedure code, the Law on Enforcement and Security and the Law on the Protection of Competition.
Combined, along with the initiative to amend the Law on Bankruptcy and the Law on Foreign Exchange Operations, these represent the short-term and medium-term priorities of the Legal Committee. In addition to the aforementioned, and in parallel with these activities, the FIC Legal Committee will continue to monitor, analyse and propose regulatory changes that are relevant to members.
Ultimately, merely adopting a specific regulation is not an end in itself, which is why the Legal Committee will continue in future to carefully analyse whether regulations are adequately applied in practice and will clearly indicate when that is not the case.