‘Doing legal business in the Visegrád Group’ seminar to be held by the Law Society on 5th September 2017 in London

U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with the regional leaders at the summit of the Three Seas Initiative group in Warsaw on 6th July was the first step towards improving trade, infrastructure and energy links among the 12 nations between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas.

Trump’s presence in Poland cast a light on this nascent project aimed at facilitating American businesses entering and modernising a region so rapidly catching up economically with the West. As a follow-up, a special Law Society conference will be held in London on 5th September entitled ‘Doing legal business in the Visegrád Group’. The seminar will focus on the practical aspects of investing in Poland and the remaining countries in the region, namely the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, and will put particular emphasis on the energy sector.

The Three Seas Initiative group is made up of members of the European Union and all but one are former communist countries whose economies and infrastructure are still developing. Together, they form a market of 105 million people, making it particularly attractive for private investors. Norway, Sweden and Turkey are also often considered part of the group as they naturally belong to either the Baltic, Black or Adriatic Sea.

The project was launched by Croatia and Poland in 2016, and its other participants are Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Most of the region’s critical infrastructure, including roads and rail services, run on an east-west corridor, partly due to Germany’s economic dominance. The project aims to develop more and better connections along the north-south axis in the sectors of energy, transport and digital communications in order “to complete the single European market.”

One of the key goals of the Three Seas is to promote greater energy independence from Russia, which has sometimes wielded its gas and oil as a political tool over central and eastern European states. Poland has recently received its first shipment of liquefied natural gas from the United States in Świnoujście, a port city on the Baltic coast. The Three Seas plan offers potential for future gas deliveries from this port down to Croatia and the remaining countries in the south of Europe. Such an arrangement would fit well with the US decision to export American gas supplies.

We warmly invite you to join us at this insightful event and benefit from an opportunity to discuss current business strategies in the legal sector.

Date: 5 September 2017

Time: 15:00 - 17:00; registration from 14:30, drinks reception from 17:00

Venue: 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL

For full details and to book your place please visit:

http://communities.lawsociety.org.uk/international/doing-legal-business-in-the-visegrd-group-group-states-5-september/5062105.fullarticle