Thursday, 3 June 2021

• The Hogan Lovells Government Relations and Public Affairs group is tracking all of the latest developments in the U.S. Congress and relevant news stories. President Joe Biden released his $6 trillion FY-2022 Budget request Friday, which includes significant new investments in federal health programs and pandemic preparedness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a study showing thousands more kidney failure patients died during the first seven months of the coronavirus pandemic than usual. President Biden on Wednesday urged Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they haven't yet, declaring a “national month of action” to reach his goal of having 70 percent of adults with at least one shot by 4 July. Twelve U.S. states now have 70 percent of adult residents who have had at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot, CDC data published Tuesday shows. Moderna announced that it has a new drug substance production agreement in the Netherlands and will be doubling its expected EU production with an additional 300 million doses per year. Read more about these developments online here. (Authored by Ivan Zapien)

• On 12 May 2021, the French Government issued a Statutory Instrument implementing Articles 17 to 23 of the European Union Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market 2019/790 of 17 April 2019. France had been a key actor in the negotiations leading to the adoption of the Directive, especially with regard to the protection of authors and rights holders. The French Government pushed, among others, for increased accountability and transparency on the part of online content service providers. France was already the first Member State to implement Article 15 of the Directive in July 2019 by Act of Parliament. Article 17 of the Directive was scheduled to be implemented in the same way. Therefore, a draft bill was issued in December 2019 to that effect. However, the parliamentary debates were delayed by a series of national strikes, and were eventually called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To meet the implementation deadline, the Government decided to legislate by Statutory Instrument and this process was approved by Parliament in December 2020. Read more online here. (Authored by David Taylor)

• We analyze online here the legal impact on Italian loan transactions of the current health emergency caused by COVID-19 in light of the recent case law and the latest legislative measures, including a suspension of interest and principal payments on loans to SMEs, the rescheduling of repayment plans, and a State guarantee for loans to larger corporates. SMEs also benefit from a mandatory hold of credit facilities, and there is a general suspension of insolvency proceedings, mandatory recapitalizations and subordination of shareholder loans. In accordance with the EU Commission's Temporary Framework on State aid, financial support is not available for non-performing or otherwise impaired loans, and our observations relate to loans which were fully performing until COVID-19. (Authored by Carlo Massini)