The Polish Council of Ministers adopted the draft law on family foundations, submitted by the Minister of Development and Technology.
Who can set up a family foundation?
In Poland, nearly 830,000 of enterprises are family businesses that generate annual revenue of PLN 322 billion. Many of them face, or will face in the near future, the need to transfer their assets to legal successors. A large number of companies also intend to carry out succession, which will allow them to manage their assets in a multi-generational perspective.
In order to effectively carry out the succession, entrepreneurs must have successors who will be able and willing to continue running the business, or at least perform ownership functions in it, entrusting management to a professional management board. Therefore, the Polish government has prepared tools that will allow to build organizational structures that ensure the continuation of business and protection of assets – in a perspective longer than one generation – without the need for personal involvement of legal successors in running a business.
The current Polish regulations contained in the Act of February 20, 2015 on renewable energy sources (Journal of Laws 2020, item 261, as amended) (hereinafter: the “RES Act”) do not ensure the effective development of renewable energy sources (hereinafter: “RES”), in areas covered by the draft regulations.
In particular, the prepared draft Act aims to transpose Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of December 11, 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (Journal of Laws EU No. L 328, of December 21, 2018), hereinafter referred to as “RED II”, “RED II” or Directive 2018/2001.
Currently businesses are not only expected to make profit and grow on a financial level but also to contribute to the positive change in the society and to take responsibility and improve the impact on the environment. The main principle that helps investors to meet those requirements is sustainability. In the social – environmental context it refers to the support of human and ecological well-being, health, and vitality over time and in the corporate context, it refers to the ability of an entity to consistently create and protect value over the long-term.
One of the practices that focuses on benefiting the society and the natural environment is called sustainable investment. Sustainable investing seeks to achieve the dual goals of creating both financial returns and positive social and/or environmental impact. The main principle of sustainable investing is to make capital allocation decisions based on socially responsible and ethical strategies. It can fall into a multitude of categories, including improving access to quality education, clean energy, gender and racial equality, the sustainability of agriculture or food systems, and waste management.
In Poland there has entered into force the Act of 12 March 2022 on assistance to Ukrainian citizens in connection with an armed conflict in the territory of that country (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 583).
The adopted special act regulates the issues of stay of Ukrainian citizens in Poland. It also assumes a number of solutions related to the labor market. The most important thing is to open access to the labor market for Ukrainian citizens.
Admitting Ukrainian citizens to work in Poland will not require a work permit or a declaration of entrusting work, as it has been so far. The only formal requirement is the obligation for the employer to notify employment offices about entrusting work for a citizen of Ukraine.
The employer has 14 days from the date of starting work by the Ukrainian citizen to fulfill this obligation. The notification shall be submitted via the praca.gov.pl portal. The solution applies only to Ukrainian citizens, not all foreigners. The special act also gives Ukrainian citizens the possibility of simplified registration – as unemployed and jobseekers – in poviat labor offices.
The Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau added equipment and services from three entities – AO Kaspersky Lab, China Telecom (Americas) Corp, and China Mobile International USA Inc. – to its list of communications equipment and services that have been deemed a threat to national security, consistent with requirements in the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019.
