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Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP

SQUARE DE MEEÛS 38-40, 1000 BRUSSELS

Tel:: Work +32 2 792 20 11
Fax:: Fax +32 2 792 22 22

Web:: www.blplaw.com
Email:

Singapore, Paris, Moscow, London, Brussels, Abu Dhabi

Michael John Sydney Renouf

Tel:: Work +32 2 792 2011
Email:

Work Department

EU and competition law team, Brussels; corporate department, BTS group.

Position

Partner (joined February 2006); member of the EU and competition law team based in the Brussels office, with a focus on regulatory affairs. Areas of practice include: regulatory issues, particularly environmental law; internal market law; and general problem solving for industry and for individuals through European law. This includes complaints to the European Commission and to the European Ombudsman, ‘administrative advocacy’ before the EU institutions and cases before the courts. Currently representing the Autonomous Region of the Azores on an important fisheries case before the Court of First Instance (dealing in part with integration of environmental requirements into the Common Fisheries Policy). Advises industry on various regulatory areas, including medical devices and cosmetics, and on environmental laws including climate change, ozone depleting substances, electronics, climate change and waste.

Career

Career: Traineeship European Commission Legal Service; trained Thomas Eggar Verrall Bowles; qualified 1988; eighteen years of experience practising European law in Brussels. At Thomas Eggar Verrall Bowles he represented Ian Cowan in the Cowan case before a court in Paris and on a successful preliminary reference to the European Court of Justice (Case 186/87, Cowan v Trésor Public, a case of constitutional significance which has helped to push forward the boundaries of EU law). Four years as associate at Forrester Norrall & Sutton, Brussels; five years as director responsible for Brussels office of Legal Resources Group, representing six independent regional UK law firms. Established Renouf & Co 1988, providing specialist European law advice to a range of clients, from multinational companies and the public sector to small businesses and individuals. During this time he successfully brought the opera singers’ case concerning social security rights of migrant workers and self-employed persons before the Tribunal du Travail in Brussels and on reference to the European Court of Justice (Banks v Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie). Also acted as European adviser to several regional and national UK law firms. (See profile, ‘Gun For Hire’, ‘European Legal Business’, September/October 2000). One of the founding partners of Crosby Renouf, January 2004 to January 2006. Joined BLP as partner February 2006. Elected to council of Law Society of England and Wales as member for EU matters 2002-07; chaired the Law Society’s fledgling EU Committee 2002-05; the Law Society’s representative on the UK Delegation to the Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Union (CCBE) (2004-07).

Languages

Languages: Fluent French.

Member

Member: Law Society European Group; UK Association for European Law (UKAEL).

Education

Education: Kingsdown School, Stratton St Margaret, Swindon; Manchester Polytechnic (1983 BA Hons law with French, 1986 Law Society finals); Vrije Univeriteit Brussel (1984 LLM master of international and comparative law).

Practice Areas

EU and competition; Environment

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Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP

New Commission

On Friday 27 November 2009 the new European Commission, which will begin its mandate early in 2010, was announced by Commission President José Barroso. This announcement followed a week after the appointment of Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton as the President of the European Council and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy respectively, the two new roles created by the Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force on 1 December 2009.

- Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP

Legal Developments in Belgium

Legal Developments and updates from the leading lawyers in each jurisdiction. To contribute, send an email request to

ALTIUS reinforces Real Estate & Regulatory team with new Partner

ALTIUS is proud to announce that Lieven Peeters joined the firm as a Partner on 15 February 2010. Lieven joins ALTIUS from Linklaters where he started his career 13 years ago. He will considerably strengthen ALTIUS’ Real Estate & Regulatory department and the firm’s overall position on the Belgian market.

- ALTIUS (in cooperation with Tiberghien)
ALTIUS REINFORCES REAL ESTATE PRACTICE WITH NEW PARTNER

A significant hire from an international firm positions Brussels based ALTIUS as one of the leading independent real estate practices in Belgium.

- ALTIUS (in cooperation with Tiberghien)
Plant variety rights in the distribution chain

Under the system of plant breeders rights, also known as plant variety rights, the breeder of a new variety can obtain an exclusive right to perform certain acts with respect to material [1] of his protected variety. This exclusive right comes in the form of a certificate which is granted by a body mandated to do so,[2] provided that the variety meets the grant criteria laid down in the law. Upon grant of the certificate, and sometimes ever even before, only the breeder of the protected variety[3] is entitled to (re)produce material from the variety, condition it for the purpose of propagation, offer it for sale, sell it or otherwise put it to market, export it, import it, or stock it for any of these purposes. Subject to a number of exceptions and unless authorization from the breeder is obtained, these acts are thus reserved for the breeder of the protected variety. They are referred to as the ‘reserved acts’.

- ALTIUS (in cooperation with Tiberghien)
Le contentieux de la propriété intellectuelle, nouvelle mouture: un premier bilan

La transposition en droit belge, courant 2007, de la Directive européenne 2004/48 sur la mise en œuvre des droits de propriété intellectuelle offrit l'occasion au législateur de revoir et d'harmoniser les procédures relatives au contentieux de la propriété intellectuelle. Deux ans après son entée en vigueur, il est possible de dresser un premier bilan de la réforme. Assurément positif.

- ALTIUS (in cooperation with Tiberghien)
Social security agreement between India and Belgium

On 1 September 2009, the long-anticipated Social Security Agreement between the Kingdom of Belgium and the Republic of India (the “SSA”) entered into force. The SSA was signed in New Delhi on 3 November 2006 and is considered as a landmark agreement as it was the first treaty of its kind to be signed by the Indian authorities. Therefore it is likely to serve as a benchmark for similar agreements between India and other countries.

- ALTIUS (in cooperation with Tiberghien)
Five pitfalls to avoid in your Belgian contracting agreements

In Belgium, contracting agreements are subject to the Belgian Civil Code (‘BCC’) plus several other regulations. In this article, we briefly discuss five rules which foreign investors or principals may be surprised apply to Belgian contracting agreements. Make sure you avoid these pitfalls!

- ALTIUS (in cooperation with Tiberghien)
ECJ holds that a single award procedure is sufficient for IPPPs

The Acoset judgment of the ECJ dated 15 October 2009 (C-196/08) was related to a dispute about an institutionalised public-private partnership (IPPP). A local authority wanted to grant a concession to a newly-created semi-public company, whose minority shareholder would be a private company selected by an open tender procedure. The minority shareholder would be responsible for the operations of the semi-public company.

- ALTIUS (in cooperation with Tiberghien)
Belgian Procurement Law becomes more compliant

On 23 April 2009, the ECJ held that Belgium did not properly transpose Procurement Directive 2004/18 into national law (case C-292/07). In fact, Belgium already has new procurement Acts (dating from 15 and 16 June 2006) but they have not entered into force, because the new Royal Decrees implementing these Acts have not been adopted. Therefore, Belgium decided to modify the old Royal Decrees (from 1996). This article will analyse two topics: the negotiated procedure and the procedure for handling abnormally low offers.

- ALTIUS (in cooperation with Tiberghien)
The ECJ Sea Judgement: Some further guidance on the “in house” exemption

In its Sea Judgement of 10 September 2009 (C-573/07), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) further clarifies its “in-house” jurisprudence. More specifically, it goes more deeply into the notion of control. Indeed, following the landmark judgement in the Teckal case, contracting authorities granting a public contract do not have to apply the public procurement rules if the contractor, which is a distinct legal entity, is subject to the same control by the contracting authority as the departments of the contracting authority and if the contractor carries out the essential part of its activities with the controlling local authority or authorities.

- ALTIUS (in cooperation with Tiberghien)
When does a continuous fault become a serious cause justifying dismissal?

The Belgian Supreme Court recently annulled a judgment of the Labour Law Court of Bergen because a judgment it had handed down denied the right of the employer (in this case: an administrator of a hospital) to determine himself when a continuous misconduct makes the professional cooperation immediately and definitively impossible – and consequently justifies a dismissal for serious cause.

- Claeys & Engels, member of Ius Laboris