Scientific Cooperation in Times of Pandemic. Conference on Recent Challenges in Financial Regulation

The Department of Financial Law and Public Management of the Faculty of Law of the University of Debrecen has had a scientific relationship with the Institute of Financial Law of the Polish Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski for several years. Thanks to the established network of contacts, several joint tax law research projects and professional events took place over the years. The Faculty of Law of the University of Debrecen is also involved in the CEEPUS mobility cooperation titled “KULTAX Financial and Tax Law in Central Europe”, initiated by the Polish partner university. The most recent conference, held on 21 May 2021, discussed a topical issue, “Financial Regulation in the Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic”. The event took place online, but this did not detract from its quality due to the professionalism of the speakers and the well-organized and structured programs developed by the Polish organizers.

The diversity of the event is evidenced by the fact that the speakers came from several countries that are also involved in the aforementioned cooperation, such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Albania, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected our lives in many ways, which can also be experienced in the legislative activity of individual countries and the European Union in the field of tax law. Recognizing this, a conference was organized where speakers presented the changes brought about by the new situation in a number of areas. These included the diversity of taxpayers' rights in the Bosnian tax process, the changes affecting these rights in Czech law, the changes in Albanian personal income tax rules and their implications for the budgets of families. The Department of Financial Law of the University of Debrecen was also represented in the event, where Assistant Professor Péter Bordás presented the topic of changes affecting local government expenditures and revenues in Hungary as a result of the epidemic, while her colleague, Assistant Lecturer Dóra Lovas highlighted the role of energy taxation in achieving the European Union's climate goals in her presentation titled “The Role of Energy Taxation in Terms of Achieving Climate Neutrality”. It is already clear from these few key issues that financial law professionals consider it important to provide a more complex picture of the tax implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems to be clear that regulation is changing dynamically as a result of the pandemic, leading to tax cuts and reducing administrative burdens in some countries.

Do we need to address this issue? The answer is clearly yes, as these changes will also have a long-term impact on the post-pandemic period. We should thank the Polish organizers for recognizing this situation and providing a complex picture of the changes in financial law with the involvement of professionally qualified speakers from several countries.