Romania lawyering rule may still restrict foreigners

The Romanian parliament has gone ahead with restrictive legislation in advance of a meeting with the European Commission, at which it was expected to commit to non-discriminatory rights of establishment for foreign lawyers.

The Romanian senate passed a 'lawyering' bill which would force foreign lawyers to join associations with as many Romanian practitioners as foreign lawyers.

Law Society international policy executive Christian Wisskirchen, said: 'whilst the Romanian Foreign Office informally agreed with our arguments, the parliament has not sufficiently changed its approach.'

He was confident that the matter would be settled by high level European and Romanian officials at a meeting on 27 November.

A Romanian source warned that blatant restrictions will be contained in guidelines controlled by the local bar, rather than the regulations themselves.

Anne Mizzi