ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING – FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF ACCOUNTANTS

Nowadays, in the context of interconnected economies, the phenomenon of money laundering and terrorist financing has escalated, with a direct impact in Romania as well. The European Union has intensified the fight against this phenomenon, which risks making the financial system vulnerable, through the 4th and 5th European Directives, which extend the professional obligations of accounting experts and financial auditors in the field of preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing. Because professional accountants must act in the public interest, IFAC has developed a guide that supports professional accountants in their efforts to limit the phenomenon of corruption and money laundering at an international level.

One-Stop-Shops for Energy Renovation of Dwellings in Europe—Approach to the Factors That Determine Success and Future Lines of Action

Energy renovation of buildings in the European Union would lead to considerable energy savings and a 26% reduction in energy consumption. Despite this and the programmes implemented to promote it in the residential environment in Europe and the United States, the barriers that homes, contractors, and finance companies face to undertake these processes have slowed down the results. The emergence of one-stop-shops (OSSs), promoted by European directives, as integrated management entities to promote the energy renovation of dwellings seems to be a central element in the development of future strategies. This paper looks at experiences of implementing OSSs in Europe, tries to identify the main factors of success, and proposes lines of action to strengthen OSS operation in the long term. To achieve this, documents, regulations, and data on the context were studied, and active cases of OSSs were analysed. Experiences of OSSs that are no longer operating were identified to determine why they had closed down. The results suggested that a lack of structural funding is one reason why activities terminated and that the most successful cases applied an ‘all inclusive’ model and supported families in the entire process.

Generalities on legal regulation of cartel agreements

This article provides an overview of the evolution of competition and competition law, both in the Republic of Moldova and in some European and US countries. Also, the paper crystallizes the conceptual approaches on cartels and offers an analysis of the doctrine of the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, France, Germany, USA, Great Britain regarding cartel agreements. Following the analysis carried out in this paper, it was observed that the contribution of foreign academics in the field of defining and classifying cartel agreements is substantial, and the jurisprudence of the European Commission and the European Court of Justice has served as a source of inspiration and progress for the academic environment, as well as for the development of competition on the market. Although in the Republic of Moldova there is limited research in the field of cartel agreements, it is gratifying that the legislation is harmonized with European directives, and the doctrine is developed starting from the most important international research in the field of protection of competition.

An Analysis of the “Right of Termination”, “Right of Cancellation” and “Right of Withdrawal” in off-Premises and Distance Contracts According to EU Directives

Several are the European Directives dedicated to e-commerce, focussing on consumer rights, the distance marketing of consumer financial services and the protection of consumers indistance contracts.In contract law, the terms “termination”, “withdrawal”and “cancellation”have peculiar and distinct meaning. Nonetheless, they tend to be misused and applied interchangeably. This article will shed light on these relevant terms in thelight of EU Directives on the protection of consumer rights in off-premises and distance contracts.To do so, it will first present instances in which the meaningand use of these terms is either clear-cut or somehow blurred. By analysing word usage and meaning in context, it will explore how EU Directives, and EU drafters in general, made(un)ambiguous distinctions. Then, it will investigate whether English-speaking drafters (such as those of the pre-Brexit UK, Ireland and Malta) made a consistent use ofsuch terms. Finally, this paper will explore whether online conditions of sale writtenin English by non-English speaking sellers or traders (such as Italian and Polish) also make a consistent use of the terms.The paper findings highlight that the use andlegal purpose of these terms in European Directives have not been particularly consistent over the years. Furthermore, Member States’system-specificity has weighed on the meaning, application and scope of the terms. On the other hand, at EU level the absence of a unique legal system of reference and the challenges of harmonization may have created false equivalences.

Public Policies for Procurement under COVID19

Public procurement is a main issue in the frontline of Governments fighting COVID 19 pandemic as the need for additional and urgent acquisitions as well as the need to consolidate the supply chains and to promote sustainable and innovative procurement have been a source of deep changes and main challenges disturbing public markets and invalidating several assumptions of the traditional public contracting. In this paper, the development of appropriate public policies to cope with these challenges is studied following the approach suggested by several authors and including four stages: a Stage on Facts and Issues where the main challenges and conditions are studied, the Options Stage to describe which polices and procedures can be adopted, a Values Stage stating the main values to be pursued and, finally, a Policies Stage including the selection of the recommended policies. The analysis of the challenges and facts includes the study of a taxonomy of short and longer term needs and the available options are based on the comparative study of procedures ruled by the European Directives on Public Procurement approved on 2014. The major values to be respected include the principle of competition which is a major institutional principle of the European Treaty and of the Directives as well as the goal of promoting sustainable and innovative public procurement. Several indicators are suggested to describe the application of the public procurement policies adopted across EU and their comparative analysis is presented using the TED data for contracts concerning COVID 19. The case of Portugal is discussed and final remarks about the recommended public policies are also included herein.

Translating the principles of good governance: in search of accountability in Spanish and German

Good governance is a key factor in underpinning the integrity and efficiency of an institution, whether it is a private company or a national or international organisation. The core principles of good governance are now often defined as fairness, accountability, responsibility and transparency. Although these terms are familiar to all those involved in corporate social responsibility/sustainability and business ethics, and are frequently discussed in the European Parliament and European directives, they often pose a challenge to the translator, since obvious equivalents for all of them do not exist in all EU languages. In this paper, I take the example of accountability, and examine the way that it is represented in both Spanish and German in the EUROPARL7 parallel corpus of European Parliament Proceedings, available in the Sketch Engine corpus platform. Accountability in English can be defined as an assurance that individuals or organizations will be evaluated on their performance or behaviour related to something for which they are responsible, or more simply, as being responsible for explaining what you do and able to give a satisfactory account of it to those whom your actions affect. The English term accountability thus differs from responsibility and transparency, although it overlaps with both. However, not all languages allow us to distinguish easily between the concepts they designate. In fact, the majority of Spanish translations of accountability found in EUROPARL7 simply use responsabilidad, while others make reference to rendir cuentas or rendición de cuentas, and a few actually use transparencia. In German, the picture is less confused, with the closer term Rechenschaftspflicht employed as the usual translation, but an abundance of alternatives such as Verantwortlichkeit and Auskunftspflicht also appear. In my conclusions, I discuss the rationale that may underlie the different choices, point to problems that might arise from poor translations, and suggest reasons we should strive to maintain clear definitions of these key concepts.

1. Introduction to the law of contract

Course-focused and comprehensive, Poole’s Textbook on Contract Law provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. Contracts are legally enforceable agreements intended for planned exchanges that are regulated by the principles of contract law. This chapter looks at some of the main theories underpinning the development of English contract law and examines the nature of contractual liability. Contractual obligations arise largely from party agreement and this distinguishes contractual liability from liability in tort. Given the continued relevance of English law in a globalized world (in spite of the UK exiting the European Union), this chapter also briefly introduces the various attempts to produce a set of harmonized principles such as the Common European Sales Law, along with the impact of other international developments including the growth in e-commerce and electronic communications. Moreover, the chapter analyses the most significant European directives and their effect on the development of English contract law, especially in the context of consumer contracts. The implementation of these European directives has resulted in the introduction of the concept of ‘good faith’ into English contract law. Given the increasing importance of good faith as a concept, especially when in the context of ‘a relational contract’, the chapter gives detailed discussion on the scope of and application of good faith in performance of the contract. Finally, the chapter considers the implementation of the Consumer Rights Directive in a number of statutory instruments and the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Some aspects regarding the dispute of acts / facts of the Contracting Authority to the National Complaint Agency

The review, as a result of the contestation of the public procurement procedures, aims at guaranteeing effective remedies. By establishing and implementing concrete procedures for resolving appeals, each state must take into account certain important aspects: the mechanisms for resolving appeals, the category of the authority that would be competent in resolving, the eligibility to file the appeal, etc. These powers (to review and apply corrective measures) should be given to an independent body (administrative or judicial). In the Republic of Moldova, these powers belong to the National Agency for the Settlement of Appeals, which is an administrative-jurisdictional authority. The article describes the procedure for resolving appeals according to the legislation of the Republic of Moldova, a procedure that also corresponds to the objectives of the relevant European Directives, and which aims to ensure the legality of public procurement procedures.