Michał Sobolewski

One of the most extensive amendments to the Commercial Companies Code will be in effect by October. One forthcoming amendment causing much concern is a change to article 293 which introduces the statutory notion of the business judgement rule.

At a press conference held on 2 June, the Ministry of Climate and Environment announced the current concept for transposing the SUP Directive into Polish law, including introducing a deposit scheme for product packaging in Poland. Meanwhile, the Ministry’s idea goes beyond the guidelines in the Directive, by proposing expansion of the deposit-refund scheme to include single-use glass packaging, and some objections have been raised to this plan.

According to the European Commission website, The EU taxonomy is a classification system, establishing a list of environmentally sustainable economic activities.[1]. It is aimed at providing entrepreneurs and regulators with definitions of  which economic activities can be considered environmentally sustainable[2]. In other words, the taxonomy should be a system which makes it possible to clarify which activities may be qualified as green or sustainable in order to support environmental protection by proper direction of possible investments on the market (private or using public funds) and to prevent greenwashing. The taxonomy is based on Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2020. For the effective enforcement of the regulation, the Commission is required to provide the true list of environmentally sustainable activities for particular sectors through delegated acts.

Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment (SUP Directive) was to be transposed into Polish law by 3 July 2021. In December 2021, the government presented the new proposal of an act transposing the Directive.

On 11 October 2017, Poland filed an action with the CJEU against an EC decision adopting the BAT Conclusions. In a judgment of 27 January 2021, case T-699/17, the General Court annulled the EC’s decision. Did this in fact affect the situation of large combustion plants (LCPs), which were required to comply with the conclusions by 17 August 2021?