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Introduction to Energy Law in Malta

The recent part privatization of Enemalta Corporation was accompanied by a number of significant legislative developments in the field of energy law in Malta.

The primary legislative instrument supporting these changes was Act XXXIV of 2014, Chapter 536 of the laws of Malta which inter alia: made provision for the transfer of all the assets, rights, liabilities and obligations of Enemalta Corporation to Enemalta p.l.c.; regulated further the functions of distribution system operators; repealed Chapter 272, which was the Enemalta Act and also made provision for other matters deemed to be ancillary thereto or connected therewith. This article provides an overview of the Maltese energy law regime as it stands following these changes.

On March 18, 2014, the VEGAS LEX law firm and the Council of Power Producers non-profit partnership held a conference Heat Supply Reform in Light of Investors' and Government's Strategic Interests, as part of Russian Business Week 2014.

The VEGAS LEX law firm supported the conference Environmental and Industrial Security: Business and Government as Risk Mitigators, held on March 17 as part of the Russian Business Week, an annual event run by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. The conference usually brings together major Russian industrialists and public officials.

29 January 2013, the Presidium of the Russian Supreme Commercial (‘Arbitration’) Court (the “SAC”) will consider the regime for calculating the tax base for mineral extraction tax (“MET”) if, in addition to minerals for which the tax base is calculated using the estimated method, the company extracts minerals for which the tax base is determined using other methods (Ruling No. VAS-11498/12 dated 6 November 2012 to refer the case to the Presidium of the SAC).

Legal Update No. 374, 1 August 2012

Goltsblat BLP advises that Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 736 (the Resolution) was adopted on 19 July 2012. This determines the criteria for identifying a serious deterioration in the environmental situation resulting from use of agricultural land in violation of the requirements for rational land use stipulated by the land legislation. 

Federal Law No. 261-FZ “On Saving Energy and Increasing Energy Efficiency, and on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation” came into force on November 27, 2009 (the “Law”), with certain provisions of the Law taking effect later. Changes to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, for example, became effective on December 27, 2009, and those to the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation (the “Administrative Code”) take effect on June 22, 2010.

Lawyers from the customs and foreign trade regulation practice of Pepeliaev, Goltsblat & Partners, headed by Galina Balandina, are delighted to announce completion of a project entitled “Green Channel” for innovation companies. The assignment was ordered by the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO). The project proposes a “Green Channel” for innovation companies, which will help remove a number of customs barriers and thereby expand the foreign economic activities of Russian hi-tech companies and also enhance the international exchange of research data between scientific and research institutions.

On October 28, 2009, the Russian Government adopted two new enactments relating to the development of joint implementation projects under the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change  in the Russian Federation.

The European Community has established a cap-and-trade scheme designed to limit emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere under which aircraft operators conducting aviation activities (operating air flights) will only be entitled to perform flights to/from the EC in the relevant year if they possess the allowances to emit carbon dioxide equivalent during a specified year for them.

At the end of June 2009, the Russian legal framework on energy efficiency and climate change was supplemented by Russian Government Decree No. 884-r. It  governs the following two carbon trading mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the “Kyoto Protocol”): the so-called “Green Investment Scheme” or “GIS” - under Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol, and joint implementation (“JI”) - under Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol. Decree No. 884-r is the first, and to date only, enactment specifically touching upon the carbon trading mechanism under Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol.