On 15 March 2008, the State Prices and Energy Control Commission approved by its resolution the Heat Prices Fixing Methodology. A new methodology of calculation of heat prices has introduced a stricter assessment of heat suppliers’ costs – from now on all heat suppliers will be divided into groups in terms of their size and their operational costs will be mutually compared. The spending of the proceeds from sale of Environmental Pollution Permits by heat suppliers will be also controlled. An important novelty in the price fixing methodology is that now heat suppliers will be allowed to change prices only twice per year if the price of fuel is changed by 15 percent. The methodology also provides for greater authority of municipalities in fixing heat prices.

      EU LAW The Protocol on the Statute of the Court of Justice and the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice were amended and consequently a new procedure for issuing preliminary rulings (urgent preliminary ruling procedure) was introduced as from 1 March 2008. The preliminary ruling procedure is widely recognised as a significant means of cooperation between national courts and the European Court of Justice (ECJ), interpretation and unified application of Community legal provisions. The requests referred to ECJ by national judicial institutions are often characterised by their urgency. Since such urgency cannot be satisfied by the ordinary preliminary ruling procedure (it takes approximately a year and a half) and due to existing other constraints (translation of observations which every Member State is entitled to make if it decides to do so) inherent in the preliminary ruling procedure, the threat remains that the national courts might be deterred from addressing ECJ in that type of proceedings. It is mostly for those reasons and for the necessity to provide swift response to the questions referred for a preliminary ruling in certain situations (e.g. when a person is deprived of his liberty and the answer to the question raised is decisive as to the assessment of the legal situation of the person detained or deprived of his liberty, proceedings concerning parental authority or custody of children, etc.) a new form of procedure (the urgent preliminary ruling procedure) was introduced. Three important features distinguish the new procedure from the ordinary preliminary ruling procedure. Firstly, in order to shorten the time-frame needed for the delivery of a preliminary ruling under the newly established procedure, the distinction as to the possibility to participate in written and oral stages of the procedure was introduced. According to the new procedure only the parties to the main proceedings (Member State of the court making the reference, the European Commission, the Council and the European Parliament) are entitled to lodge written observations (i.e. to participate in the written stage of proceedings). Other interested persons are authorised to participate only in the oral stage of the new procedure and present their position before the ECJ. Secondly, the time period needed for internal handling of the application for a preliminary ruling will be shortened considerably, since a panel of 5 judges will be appointed for screening and processing of requests falling within the mentioned sphere. If this panel decides to allow a request for the urgent procedure to be applied, it will give its ruling in due course shortly after the hearing. Third, electronic means for communication of documents between national courts and ECJ and in the main proceedings will be used as far as possible. This is expected to make the new procedure even more expeditious. For more information please see the internet:

      http://curia.europa.eu/en/instit/txtdocfr/ txtsenvigueur/noteppu.pdf

      http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=CJE/08/12&format=HTML&aged =0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

      LAWIN was awarded as the “Baltic Law Firm of the Year 2008” by the world’s leading publication in the field of international finance - International Financial Law Review (IFLR), at the annual European Awards ceremony, held in London on 19 March 2008. IFLR Awards reward quality and commitment to the development of legal services and are granted to the leading law firms for the outstandingly sophisticated and innovative deals in the key practice areas IFLR covers: M&A, debt and equity capital markets, project finance, securitization and restructuring. The selection of the IFLR awards winners is based on extensive research process conducted by IFLR’s dedicated legal experts and recommendations of in-house counsels and financing specialists at the world’s most prominent financial institutions and companies. IFLR carries out independent quality surveys and announces the best law firms of the year of various jurisdictions not only in Europe but also globally. This year, it was the first time when the best Baltic law firms of the year had been nominated and elected. „We see this kind of recognition not only as appreciation of our achievement, but also an incentive for us to further improve ourselves“, says Rolandas Valiūnas, a managing partner with Lideika, Petrauskas, Valiūnas ir partneriai LAWIN. „This obliges us to further exercise care about our profession, in all three Baltic countries. Achievements of legal experts in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have been evaluated by IFLR for the first time, representing an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the competence of the Baltic lawyers to our colleagues and business partners worldwide“. LAWIN has four offices in the Baltic States: in Tallinn (Lepik & Luhaäär), Riga (Klavins & Slaidins), Vilnius and Klaipėda (Lideika, Petrauskas, Valiūnas ir partneriai) and is the largest legal presence working in the Baltics. Combined knowledge, expertise and experience of more than 120 top-professional lawyers from three Baltic States, wide range international cooperation, as well as exact observance of professional ethics enable LAWIN to provide its clients consistent integrated legal services of the highest quality. Year 2007 has been extremely successful for the LAWIN in M&A, international corporate and finance field. Lawyers of the team have worked on majority of the largest and most complex crossborder projects in the region demanding international experience, professional approach and resources. „We have some excellent examples of how professional services are developed, while international cooperation provides us with a competitive edge“, says Mr Valiūnas. „I believe we are able to offer young lawyers one of the best our opportunities are limited neither by state boundaries, nor by the range of future career services“.

      On 13 March 2008, the Parliament passed the Law amending Article 33 of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights. The amendments serve to regulate more specifically the public display of art works in cases when the original or copy of a certain work is sold or otherwise transferred into third party’s disposal, as well as when they are made available to society members in public places. The long-standing practice has been as follows: the Agency of Lithuanian Copyright Protection Association (LATGA-A) requested museums and other institutions or business undertakings to pay taxes if any authors’ works were displayed in their premises. After adoption of the mentioned amendments to the Law, the persons who have acquired the art works created by authors will be entitled to use such works at their sole discretion and to display them publicly unless it contravenes the usual mode of displaying such works or infringes the interests of the author or his successors, and only provided that such public display is part of the usual activities of the person holding the works.

      On 19 March 2008, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Directive to deal with sanctioning of traffic offences committed in other Member State than that where the vehicle is registered. The Directive will also provide for technical measures and legal instruments necessary to identify and prosecute the non-resident driver. With the advent of this instrument it is expected to significantly increase road safety and correspondingly reduce the number of victims of traffic accidents in the EU. Since the newly adopted Directive will facilitate the identification of non-resident drivers guilty for the traffic offence, the number of foreign drivers (responsible for frequent car accidents in the EU) avoiding sanctions for the committed offence will be reduced remarkably. This will ensure the equal treatment of resident and non-resident drivers (the latter contrary to the resident drivers previously often managed to evade liability for committed traffic offences). Four different types of road traffic offences are to be prosecuted under the Directive: speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol, non-use of a seat belt and failing to stop at a red traffic light. Only pecuniary fines are foreseen for the infringers. For the achievement of the aims set for the Directive, the Member States are obligated to create the European network for the electronic exchange of data and start operating it within 2 years following the adoption of the Directive. The mentioned network will make it possible to send notices of offences to other countries. For more information please see the internet:

      http://ec.europa.eu/transport/roadsafety/index_ en.htm

      http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?re ference=IP/08/464&format=HTML&aged=0&la nguage=EN&guiLanguage=en.