[dropcap]G[/dropcap]ermany and Poland - United in compliance - this motto was present at the fifth anniversary edition of the German-Polish Forum of Law and Economics which took place in the building of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW below) on November 5th, 2014. The focus of the forum was the comparison of the current development trends of Compliance in Germany and Poland. The conference was organized by the Viadrina Compliance Center, the Polish-German Chamber of Commerce and the Polish-German Lawyers' Association. The organizers were the Warsaw Stock Exchange, where the conference took place and from the medial side by the CH Beck-Verlag supported.
The conference was inaugurated by Paweł Tamborski (CEO of GPW), Mariusz Haładyj (State Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Affairs), Rolf Nikel (Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Warsaw), Thomas Urbańczyk (Polish-German Chamber of Commerce), Prof. Dr. Bartosz Makowicz (Viadrina Compliance Center) and Dr. Jan Schürmann (board member of the Polish-German Lawyers' Association). In this context the benefits of compliance in times of globalization were emphasized: greater transparency of companies, the avoidance of violations (in particular corruption risks), the strengthening of investors confidence in the markets.
Dr. Klaus Moosmayer, Chief Compliance Officer of the Siemens group, held the introductory lecture. In his remarks, Dr. Moosmayer showed the current trends of corporate compliance in areas such as integrity, risk management, security, and responsibility for data protection.
The first panel of the conference was dedicated to the current challenges facing the implementation of compliance management systems (CMS).
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Rolf Strober, director of the Research Institute for Compliance, Security Administration and Security (FORSI) started the second part of the conference. The topic of his presentation was "Trust, but compliance is better“. In the second panel also news in legal compliance were discussed. The first lecture by Dr. Marcin Cieminski and Dr. Heiner Hugger of Clifford Chance LLP dealt with the legal benefits of CMS in Germany and Poland. The third panel discussed compliance in medium-sized companies. The panel was opened with a guest lecture by Prof. Dr. Peter Fissenewert of HWW Wienberg Wilhelm Rechtsanwälte. The last lecture was given by Dr. Dominik Wagner of TIGGES lawyers. It discussed the compliance requirements with regard to the representation of SME interests. Finally, Prof. Dr. Bartosz Makowicz summarized the event. He emphasized that compliance is an investment in the company, in its reputation and its market value.
The development of compliance in Germany is characterized by high dynamics for many years and also gained in Poland an increasing importance. It should be emphasized that the V. edition of the Forum was devoted exclusively to compliance for the first time. The conference centered the latest challenges for compliance and presented an interdisciplinary platform for the exchange of opinions and experiences of practitioners from both countries in order to act together and to look for maximum-effective solutions.