Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance hosts a celebration of Croatia's accession to the European Union

To mark the occasion of Croatia's accession to the European Union (as of 1 July 2013) Clifford Chance recently brought together representatives of regional banks, corporate clients, selected government and trade organizations as well as law firms with whom the Firm is regularly working to hear from a delegation of EU law experts and regional legal specialists from across Clifford Chance's network.

The event, which was held at The Westin Hotel, Zagreb, featured a panel discussion on challenges and opportunities for a future member state, setting the scene for the lively discussion that followed at the reception.

Loren Richards (Frankfurt) chaired the event, which started with a key note speech by Michel Petite (Paris). Michel shared unique experiences and insights gained during the course of his former career at the European Commission, including as Director-General of the Legal Service of the European Commission.

The panel, which featured Joachim Schütze (Düsseldorf), Tanja Svetina (Milan), Matthew Grigg (London), Andreea Sisman (Bucharest), and Itir Ciftci (Istanbul), then entered into a discussion covering EU state aid, new laws adopted in acceding member states around securitisation and covered bonds, access to EU funds, current financial legislative developments (especially EMIR) as well as observations from the Turkish perspective.

The event was well attended and provided an excellent opportunity for networking with business partners based in, or focused on, the Croatian market. Feedback was unanimously positive. Marko Remenar (Member of the Management Board of Zagrebacka Banka, Unicredit Group) commented: "Excellent panel. Only Clifford Chance can assemble such a crowd of strong lawyers at one gathering. Useful and fun". Neven Vranković (Member of the Management Board of Atlantic Grupa) added: "It was a unique opportunity to hear the first hand experience on what can be expected once Croatia joins the EU. We appreciated this special gift from our friend and partners from Clifford Chance".

Loren and Beda Wortmann (Frankfurt) both summarised: "The Firm has a long-standing track record in Croatia and the surrounding region and values the relationships with its regional business partners highly. The event was a great opportunity not just to celebrate Croatia's EU accession with our clients and other regional business partners, but also to share with them – thanks to a particularly diverse and expert panel from across the Firm's offices and practice areas - relevant first hand experiences around implications and opportunities of EU membership. We were delighted to see such positive resonance for our event from clients and other regional business partners".